Our homeschool year officially launched August 19th. And it is shaping up to be a homeschool year unlike any other we have ever experienced in our twelve years of homeschooling. Let me explain…
A Homeschool Year Unlike Any Other
To begin with, for the first time ever, I was not the one behind the camera lens taking the first-day photos. As I mentioned in my Grief is Like a Stray Kitten post, my Mom died in January. One of the necessary changes in our lives, since my Mom died, is that I am now my Dad’s healthcare power-of-attorney and accompany him to certain medical appointments. Our school year launched this year with me by Dad’s side and my amazing capable husband at home with the kids and him taking the photos for me. And while I *might* have shed a few tears over that, I had to be okay with it. Because the fact is, my husband IS amazing and capable and my kids understood that I needed to be with my Dad. Truth be told, our son likely preferred not seeing me cry as he ambled up the sidewalk toward his first college class. And our girls did just fine logging into their internet-based classes at home that day.
Of course, I absolutely understand that no two homeschool years look exactly the same. And that is perfectly fine by me. That said, homeschools do tend to take on a tempo and rhythm of sorts. In music, the tempo is how fast the notes are played while rhythm is how long the individual notes are, relative to each other. Tempo and rhythm are similar in a homeschool. In my estimation, the tempo is how fast your week goes, while rhythm is how many things are packed into a week and how long each of those are in relation to each other. Our homeschool tempo and rhythm had to change in 2021 due to life events that I’ve since been encouraged not to discuss online (I’m sure you can go back and read previous posts if you’re curious) but we found a rhythm and tempo that worked for us. This year, our tempo and our rhythm is changing once again… and not just slightly. Wowee.
Let’s back it up a bit. Over the winter break last year, I wasn’t sure whether or not we should return to our homeschool co-op in the fall. In the spring, we’d decided that dual enrollment was the best option for Mister for the Fall, and we’d gotten him registered for Fall classes in April. I knew that him attending some classes at the college would affect the rhythm of things and I had yet to sort it all out.
In May, I had our son load all of our lower-grade curricula and books into our van and took them to the local used homeschool resale shop. You should have seen the lady’s face when he carted all of it in. The great book sell-off FELT like the end of an era. I knew how much our homeschool HAD changed over the years… but I didn’t know then, how much our homeschool was changing this year.
When it was time to sign up for classes for the co-op in June, I was REALLY hesitant. Sister insisted she wanted to join the drama class, so I relented and signed us up for a full schedule, knowing full well that we had a schedule conflict on Wednesday mornings because Mister had classes on the college campus and we now had classes on the other side of town at the co-op. For the first time in our co-op career, I was not going to be teaching a class.
Fast forward to mid-July. We started chatting with one of the gentlemen at our church about buying his 2011 Toyota Camry for our teens. Since Mister is now a licensed driver, we’d decided he would be responsible for driving himself to classes at the community college. We thought this was the best way to resolve the schedule conflict between his classes at the college and the girls’ classes at our homeschool co-op and not deprive anyone. SO, we thought, let’s get a small used car and he can drive himself. I don’t have to clone myself or try to run myself ragged to be in two places at once. Problem solved. Right? Then when Sister gets her license (she has her permit now, they can share it).
On July 16th, our van was totaled in freakish flash flooding about a half mile from our home. Have you ever heard the phrase, “The Good Lord willing and the creek don’t rise?” Well, the creek rose, the sewers failed, and my van was no more. By the way, I won’t be using that phrase anymore. Creeks do rise. From now on, you’ll only hear, “if the Lord wills it” from me. By the way, I was supposed to be driving to my Dad’s that day, after my own doctor appointment, to accompany him to a doctor appointment the next day. My van being totaled prevented me from driving through the flooding in Nashville, Illinois that occurred on the same day, at about the time I would have been in the area. Hmmm…
We’ve looked at, and test driven, more used vehicles to replace my van than you could shake a stick at and still haven’t found a suitable replacement. No problem, though. We have the teen mobile, that I have the spare key for, right?
Okay… back to schedule conflicts.
We’re back to square one. Mister has college classes on campus on Wednesday. The girls are enrolled in classes at the co-op on Wednesdays. We got the teen mobile to eliminate the Wednesday morning drop-off conflict because he could drive it and I could drive the van. Now the van was no more.
On July 23rd, I received an email requesting my attendance at a series of meetings that conflicted with co-op attendance in the afternoons. My attendance at those meetings was pretty integral to the meetings.
On July 28th we learned that some changes at our homeschool co-op meant that the drama class she’d been looking forward to would no longer be available as previously listed. Other changes meant that the only class that we could have stayed for would have been a morning cooking class but it just didn’t make sense to our schedule to do so. So, we ultimately made the hard (HARD) decision to withdraw from co-op classes before they started.
As I mentioned, Mister is a dual enrollment student this year. His entire homeschool highschool junior year will be dual enrollment at a community college. Which means this momma will not be the one teaching him. And that comes with a host of feels. While I will not be teaching him directly, I will be his coach and mentor… a manager of sorts if you will. I’ll share more about that in my 11th grade plans for 2024-2025 post and in a pros and cons of dual enrollment post. Right now, his classes are on Mondays and Wednesdays. We’ll enroll his spring classes in October.
Last year, Mister and Sister took classes at a homeschool enrichment center on Tuesdays. This year, Sister will take classes on Tuesdays and be at home the other four days. Little Miss will take classes on Thursdays and be at home the other four days. I’ll share more about each of their classes in separate posts.
That means the only day I will have all three of my kids home at the same time will be on Fridays.
As I mentioned, we made the hard decision to withdraw from co-op classes before they started, so co-op started last Wednesday without us. And boy, did we ever miss it. We spent some time baking together before I had a 3.5 hour meeting. It was a cake straight outta the box, but we chose to make the best of it, and we had fun together. We’re going to make it a point to spend time cooking together this year. It may not always be on Wednesday (because some of them are chock full of busy) but we will make the most of our time together.
We’re finishing our second week, and nothing FEELS normal yet. I dropped one kiddo off for classes this morning, took one kiddo to start a checking account (we weren’t able to open it, we had to schedule an appointment because they were so busy), and am now waiting for one kiddo to finish a class online so we can work on math together. I’m not sure when we’ll find our groove. Or if we’ll find our groove. But, I will cherish the moments I get with each of my kids as we go. Even if it’s a homeschool year unlike any other.
