School Update

So we have completed almost a month of school. 

It's been a big transition. Our on-line school changed both the Language Arts and Math curriculum and I won't lie, I hate highly dislike it.  There have been tons and tons of technical issues turning 40 minute lessons into 2 hour lessons.  The quizzes and tests are subjective and therefore even I am struggling with finding correct answers.  (And I'm pretty smart!!) I've been close to throwing in the towel, withdrawing, and doing my own thing.  But I haven't. Yet. 

This month has included 2 hours of Live Lessons for me, the parent, back to back in the middle of the day; MAP testing for both boys which takes up hours of our day AND there were technical difficulties with Nate's testing not once, not twice, but three times which delayed the test and impacted our schedule. 

Yet, as we wrap up September I can say that we are current on all assignments.  Even though I comment on every single Math and Language Arts lessons with issues (everything from the wrong videos posted for a lesson to spelling errors in reading assignments) I'm figuring out how proceed through those lessons in less time, without watching ever single video which take forever to load, while still making sure the boys are understanding concepts. 

As we start October, I'm hoping we finally have a routine.  I started this year thinking that I could do 30 minute sessions with each boy, back and forth, and accomplish a lot.  But Math and Language arts are often taking 45 minutes-1 hour and 15 minutes so a 30 minute time slot just wasn't working.  Just today I went back to the concept of I teach one boy in the morning and one in the afternoon.  During their "non-teaching" time, they have AWANA lessons to work on, journals to write and math worksheets to work on.  This one day went better than the whole month!   Now, next week, both boys will have their full scale of Live Lessons (Josh's started last week but Nate's start next week) so I may have to revert back to an hour at a time to get around the Live Lessons but it will still be better than what I was doing! This homeschooling stuff is not for the faint of heart ;-) 

My goal for October is to head in the same way we are ending September - current.