A New Direction for this Fall

I know I’ve talked a bit about how it’s been tough for me to publish some knitting patterns.  I’m not saying I won’t, but I know that the time is not right for right now.  My brain is just occupied in too many other places.

We’ve had some big decisions to make this year.  Many kids Silje’s age who are homeschooled go back to a traditional school around junior high.  Silje has had a rough year for many reasons, and we have brought up this discussion in this home a lot.  While the decision is Knut’s and mine, Silje’s opinion on this is weighted greatly with us.

We know we need to make a change.  David’s health issues, combined with some learning challenges has put Silje and even Elias in a tough spot.  There’s just only one of me to go around.  Although I’ll admit, that David has been doing considerably better, and I’ve been able to do so much more with the other kids this last year, we are all still kind of in recovery mode from this last year of changes, preceded by me learning to deal with the chronic pain from our car accident.

The 3 of us (Knut, Silje and I) have been praying about a few options for several months, and have arrived at a decision.

Option 1 is to keep going as we’ve been going, and hope for the best.  None of us have a peace about this.  We see there needs to be a change of some sort.

Option 2 is to send Silje(and maybe Elias) to public school.  We live in a great district, with great teachers.  This is a very valid option.  None of us (including Silje) have a peace about this either, though we can’t put our finger on why.  It’s not that we’re anti-public school, it’s that we are not convinced that this is the path God has for us right now.

We have been discussing the pros and cons of each of these.  Life is tough now, but that’s not to say that life will be super easy if we transition kids to public school.  Sometimes, we exchange one set of problems for another set of problems.  Sometimes the decision is trying to decide which set of problems we want to deal with.

In Silje’s case, she struggled with each set of pros.  She loves being homeschooled now.  She loves all her animals, even though they take up so much of her time.  She loves being able to read books for hours.  She loves having the flexibility to volunteer during the day, go on field trips whenever the urge hits us, and having some input on what she studies and customizing it to her style.

On the other hand, she’d love more time hanging out with kids her own age.  She is the kinda gal who loves raising her hand and being the smartest kid in class.  She’s a type A list maker.  She wants to do more school-ish stuff.  She wants more group work.

Our situation is a bit different, because Silje’s bus ride to public school would be an hour each way.  She would have homework, which would eat up her evening time.  There are simply only so many hours in a day, and she would have to drop out of several of her activities, and likely re-home some of her animals in order to go to public school.  We just live that far out of town, and have to be careful we don’t overburden her.  One of the reasons we started homeschooling her, is that the bus and school schedule forced us to pick between family time and extra curricular activities.  If we went back to that route, we’d be forced to pick again.

So we started to brainstorm…

For several years, we’ve been hearing 2 sets of cousins (my 1st cousins in Michigan and Knut’s 2nd cousins in Florida) talk endlessly about a national homeschool co-op called Classical Conversations.  They have groups across the country.  We have actually been using some of their curriculum in the last few years because I just love it.  It would flow seamlessly into the curriculum we are already using at home, and be a great supplement, instead of a random class.  We have not joined one of these co-ops in the past for 2 main reasons: The closest one is an hour away from us, and it costs a decent chunk of change to join.

But as we felt we needed a change, and Knut, Silje and I both wanted to do something different, or maybe even a compromise between the 2 choices we had that none of us was satisfied with, I called up the director of the CC group an hour from us, and asked if we could spend a trial day at the co-op.

If we joined, we would join as a family.  That’s a no-brainer.  Silje would be in a class, David would be in a different class, and Elias and Solveig would be together in a younger class.  Ingrid would be in the nursery, or just hang out with me in whatever classroom I would be assisting.  That’s 4 sets of tuition, and 1 set of childcare expenses for this 1 day a week program.

My biggest concern was how David would do in a classroom for a day.  The co-op only meets one day a week, and Silje would have to drop orchestra and reschedule her violin lessons for this to work.  She does want to pick up Tae Kwon Do with her brothers, and keep all her volunteering.

Silje’s class would be all day.  David’s class has the option of full day or half day.  (So perhaps we can work him up to a full day?)  Elias and Solveig’s class is only half day.  David’s age group on down requires that 1 parent be in the building during the class, helping out in whatever room their kids need them.  So on a typical co-op day, all the kids would be in class in the morning, we’d have lunch and recess, and then I would take the younger kids with me on some errands around town as Silje finished up her afternoon classes.

David does not do well in classrooms.  We have not had the discussion on whether or not he should go to public school.  We already know he learns best at home.  Classrooms stress him out.  He can be very disruptive.  So the big trial day was more to see how he did, to see if this was a workable option.

The trial day was fantastic.  I was so impressed on so many levels.  I couldn’t have desired more for David, and each of the other kids had a blast in their class as well.  I stayed with David (Silje was in this class too for the trial day) most of the time, helping him through, taking breaks to hang out with Ingrid in the nursery, and occasionally peeking in on Elias and Solveig’s class.

Not only did the kids have a great time, but I had a great time just talking with the other homeschool moms, and talking about our school year.  In the local co-op we had joined in the past, I loved all the moms so dearly, but my kids just came home kind of crazy, and the time of the event just really clashed with our other activities and family obligations.  So we dropped out.  I miss getting together with those moms.  Seeing the moms at this other co-op reminded me how sweet these friendships are, and how important this might be for me as well.

So we’ve committed to joining this co-op an hour away this next school year.  I think that having 1 day a week there will be this nice change that our family has been needing.  The 3 of us weighing in on this decision all have a peace about it, and I think that says something.  The kids have been asking to go back every week since, but we just don’t have the money for that yet.

Which brings me to an introduction to tomorrow’s post.  The price tag on this activity has been stressful for us, as we have a new baby coming, have to deal with a very expensive diet with one of our kids, and we just aren’t sure where else to find this money in the budget.  Knut and I are both brainstorming some pet projects to raise this little bit of money.  I’m going to be trying to monetize this blog just a bit more, without compromising my personal mission statement or purpose for writing.  My worst nightmare is for my sweet relationships between my readers and I to turn into one of sales.

So I wanted to quick remind you that I earn a commission on my Amazon links, and shopping through this site will helps support this venture.

I’ve added one more income revenue on here that I want to disclose with you.  It’s a company called  Mary and Martha.  I just love their products, and I’ll be linking up with some of those from time to time, and sharing occasionally on how I’m using their products in our home.  (Although I don’t intend large posts on it, maybe just some pictures in regular use.)  You can shop through my website linked above.

Everything I’ve ordered from this company is so lovely, and more than I expected it to be, that I have no issues recommending it’s products enthusiastically.

This weekend, I’ll be hosting a live party in my home for this company.  If you are local to me and haven’t got an invite, send me a quick email if you want to come.  If you want in on the special deal for just this party in the online world anytime between now and Saturday night, you can shop here for this particular party to get the special, and just be sure to have your orders in by Saturday.  I’ll be closing the party sometime after church on Sunday.

I’m really thinking that few of these parties, or a handful of online sales might be all I need to get the kids in this great co-op.  I could also tudor a class at the co-op and cover their tuitions, but I’ll have a newborn the fall, and David needs me in his room, and…I know my limits.  I just can’t right now.

Thanks friends, for understanding, and I can’t wait to share with you how our new venture this fall is going!