We Are Homeschoolers::Review of Our Week

Funny story this week. I am getting my haircut from a lady who I have known since my kids were babies. Our conversation led to discussing a vocational school that my 17yo daughter is looking in to. As the conversation developed, a fellow stylist joined in. Her input: "I don't think that school does a very good job preparing its students. My neighbor's daughter went there and she is having her mom drop off her applications for employment!! But..well, it might not be the school. She was homeschooled, so that might explain it (snort, laugh)."

I had a few reactions- the first was to almost laugh out loud (if you knew my kids, you would understand). The second was to think that when my now adult kids were little, my reaction would have been to be bit offended with a huge infusion of doubt. I am not sure how "new homeschoolers" feel these days. Do years of "success" stories make it easier? I know for me, having "homeschool grads" gives me the confidence to know that just like their "normal" counterparts, homeschool children have varying degrees of success and ability to function in the world. We don't condemn the entire public school system when one child has difficulties, I would not condemn all homeschoolers either. I also hold tight to the belief that many children who have difficulties may have a better chance of thriving in a homeschool environment.

Anyway, these weird homeschoolers had a pretty "normal week". :)

The Highlight of the Week:

Just so you know that we are getting properly "socialized"-

Our annual St. Valentine's Day Party!

 Friends in our co-op visited Malaysia recently, so they brought some treats to share.

 Like any good "class party", the students delivered Valentines to their friends.

Everyone had fun eating some yummy snacks and visiting.

 And ended it all with a game of ball tag in the rain.

 Lego Challenge:

While his brothers were off at Lego Robotics class, James participated in the Lego Challenge. He built a simple skyscraper out of a set number of bricks (the challenge: building anything, but with designated pieces). He was inspired by our recent "Sky Boys" read.

 Time4learning:

I need to get to a separate post, but we are working on figuring it out. My "parent time" that I had assigned myself was to be last weekend, but the site was on a planned shut down to work on things. So far, I am super impressed with the lower level program. James, 7yo, is one those kids who loves to "do school"- like in actual books. This program has that feel to him, but in a much more enjoyable fashion. I am reassigning myself "parent time" this weekend as well as "post about it" time.

Some thoughts on weekly reviews:

Sometimes I think why bother. No one wants to read about our boring lives- we did not do anything special. The other day I was looking for something that I knew I had noted on my blog. I clicked on "week in review" and up popped all of our posts since the beginning of the year. Then I realized that it really is for me!! It was so nice to go back and remember so many of the things that we had done this year- many of them so little and insignificant (but fun to me) that I probably would never have remembered them. I am never going to be a good record keeper, but I can count on the fact that at least once a week I am going to try to recall some of the moments that were special to us.

Hope you all had a wonderful week!!

I am linking up to Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers. You can go there to share your week or just to see what other homeschoolers are up to.