Homeschooling Review

Being that it is the end of the semester, and being that I haven't talked about what is going on in our school for a while, I thought I would catch you up on our homeschooling adventure.

This year as been going pretty smoothly for the girls.  Who would guess that after all these years I might have figured out what I am doing.  lol  Ainsley has adjusted to Saxon math quite well, and although she doesn't know her math facts (I keep trying and trying) she does really well with it even if it does take forever.  She is super smart and having a great time.  We went with a new Science curriculum this year as well.    We are using Joy Hakim's The Story of Science.

There is a series of additional student and teacher guides that help break down the book and offer additional learning opportunities.  We have been using the Newton at the Center series and have enjoyed it.  The only problem for us is that the Newton guides don't equate to quite a years worth of science for us, but the additional two guide sets would be too much.  So, I have been supplementing with Young Scientist Club experiments.  Fun!!!!

Brighton...well...his year has been a bit of a challenge.  Due to his desire to attend a 4 year school we have been trying to work the system to get him the approved courses he needs to apply.  It is really a long story how the whole thing in California works.  But the online school he attended last year was no longer approved for the first semester this year.  So we switched to one that was.  National University Virtual High School.  It was quite a challenge since this school was much more self directed, self paced and...well...self everything.  The communication from his "instructors" was somewhat minimal.  And while for some subjects that was ok, for others it was almost disastrous.   Calculus AP?  Well, the kid is a flippin math genius.  So, no problems there.  He read the book, did the exercises and happily got an A in the class.  Psychology?  Well, that started off being a big ole hot mess!  Neither Phil nor I could figure out what he was supposed to do or how to help him.  Then we found there was an optional text book to go with the class.