Hanson's Ridge
"Classical education in the fall, Charlotte Mason in the Winter, unschooling in the spring."
-Paraphrased from Julie Bogart "What I mean is that there is a rhythm to the way learning happens here; there are upbeats and downbeats; there is an ebb and flow." -Melissa Wiley It's been awhile since I posted on the blog. It's been a wild ride this year and last year! Last summer, we had some tough times. We were dealing with constant construction on the house to fix the tree damage, one of the kids was struggling with increased anxiety, and we got a new developmental diagnosis for one of the kiddos. We decided to put DC, age 4, in preschool. He spent the year at an absolutely wonderful play-based preschool with an amazing teacher. He thrived on the structure, the routine, and, I think, the separation from family. He needed space to come out from the shadow of his oldest sister, and this was the best opportunity he's had so far. He's now 5 and getting ready to start public kindergarten on Monday! It was a tough decision but I'm feeling comfortable with it. AW will be starting first grade at home on Monday. CE, at age 2, is still just a tagalong. We took the summer pretty easy. Year-round school didn't feel like a good fit now that we are tied to the academic calendar for DC, so I'm just aligning the two school calendars to keep life simple. We visited Dutch Wonderland and the two older kids went to Ocean City with Himself and Himself's family. Now we are gearing up and I'm going to tell you a little about those two quotations at the beginning of this post. Julie Bogart and Melissa Wiley are two veteran homeschoolers who have so much wisdom to share about their experiences. I identify deeply with both of their statements. With the excitement of a new school year, not just for but for AW, we dive into something that looks a little bit like "school." I have a schedule and lesson plans and we will probably follow a curriculum for awhile. Over the winter, we do tend to be a bit more cozy and focused on just books. In the spring, we get cabin fever, and her creativity tends to run wild. We don't go quite so linear fashion as Julie describes, but we have ebbs and flows more like Melissa's. When she described this rhythm in her homeschool, it sounded just like us. We'll stick to the plan for awhile, but then fall down a rabbit hole and go with more child-led learning for awhile. We planned on studying the Stone Age for the month of January, but stuck with it for the rest of the school year. Sometimes AW hits a learning plateau in math or reading. Then we stop, take a step back, and let her back burner those skills while we go more child led. When we come back to those subjects, she is refreshed, eager, and far more cooperative. It's taken me awhile to trust that process, but I now feel very good about it because I've seen the dividends of this approach. So what's our homeschool plan for the year? Well, it looks like a lot. This doesn't mean we are going to do all these things all of the time. They are just the resources I plan to pull in when it's my turn to drive the homeschool bus. When AW is driving, we'll likely head to the library. History You'
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AuthorHi! I'm Stephanie Hanson. I live with my husband, Himself, on Hanson's Ridge in Virginia. Archives
September 2017
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