Crazy days...

It's been a while since I've posted, and that is mostly due to the crazy schedule that I've had lately. With it being summertime, that means many things. The first being that my daughter, who's almost 16, goes to her dad's for 2 weeks at a time throughout the summer. With her leaving and coming back, so often it throws everything off.

Now we're getting ready for her 16th birthday party coming up. Which is also the signal for the start of our homeschooling year. This year things will be a little different because a week after she gets home from her dad's she will be getting on a plane to fly to Arizona to spend a week with her grandparents. So our year will be starting a little later than normal, but we will still get it all done.

Homeschooling is probably the best thing I could have ever done for her. When I pulled her from public school 2 years ago, I never thought we'd make it this far. I thought I'd homeschool for a year or so, get her caught up and then send her back to public school. However, with everything the way it is nowadays that is definitely NOT happening. Every year things get worse, and I will not be sending her back to deal with some of the things they are teaching. So for now, we continue homeschooling and homesteading. My plan has always been to teach her everything she needs to know to be a successful citizen, and a functioning adult in society. So, my methods of teaching are a little unorthodox when you compare them to a public school education, and even sometimes when compared to a traditional homeschool. I've found through research that what I do is considered Unschooling. Which means nothing more than teaching the exact opposite of way traditional public schools teach. It doesn't mean it's wrong, and it definitely doesn't mean the way they do it is right.

I learned being a substitute in the school system that there were kids who excelled, kids who were in the middle and kids who were left behind. No two people learn the same way so why do we have a one size fits all way of teaching. I have approached teaching my daughter in what works for her. I have found that she is a hands on, auditory learner. She struggles learning through reading because of her dyslexia, which means she's not a strong reader. She also struggles with problem solving. These are all things I'm able to address with her one-on-one, which is something she couldn't get in the public school system.

At the end of the day I'm so glad I chose to homeschool my daughter. I will say it hasn't always been easy, and there have been days where we were both frustrated and sometimes there were even tears. But I'm so glad we've taken on this adventure together.