This is our family's 9th consecutive year homeschooling and 11th year total. We are in the homestretch of our schooling days as Sarah is beginning the 11th grade and Elizabeth is beginning 9th grade this year.
Our first day of this school year will begin tomorrow, Tuesday, September 7, 2021. (Starting after Labor Day is always my preferred start date, but depending on where we are living in the country on any given school year and when that part of the country begins their public school tends to dictate when I begin my school year. Since we are planning on being in North Carolina until Elizabeth graduates I can plan on this being our start date every year for the next 4 school years.)
I would be lying if I said that I wasn't nervous about this school year. High school homeschooling is a big deal. The success or failure of it will impact my children's future, and it will rest solely in my hands. That kind of responsibility weighs on me heavily.
I am also feeling some anxiety this year because I am completely alone in terms of schooling Sarah. Unlike the last three years while living in Indiana, I get absolutely zero help from the school district - no supplies, no tactile support, no embossing help, no technology assistance and devices. Nothing. We are on our own completely, and although I have attempted to reach out to the school for the blind here in North Carolina multiple times both via phone and email to see if they knew of any resources I could tap into, I have received no response from them at all.
I feel like I am in a boat that needs to cross a huge lake; as I sit at the starting point of my journey I realize that there is a sizable hole in my boat that I am going to constantly have to work at patching to keep the water from sinking my vessel while also trying to paddle across this lake to reach my goal of getting to the other side.
But here's the thing, one of my biggest weaknesses is also one of my biggest strengths. I will not give up and I will fight through this hardship with every single part of my being to make this year successful. Even though I am scared of messing things up and not doing things right by my girls, I also have been doing this long enough to know that everything will be okay. This year is not going to be perfect (it never is), but it will be good as long as I am willing to give myself some grace and patience and remember that schooling is not a race to see who can go through the most information in a half-assed way. Rather, I believe, that schooling should be about learning something until it is mastered - even if it means going at a slower pace. After all, the tortoise and the hare both got to the finish line, didn't they? If I was a betting kinda gal, I would bet that the tortoise's experience along the journey was better because he was able to savor his experience.
Here is the curriculum I have chosen to use this year with my girls...
Elizabeth:
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