Summer is over in our household and we are back to homeschooling for the third year. As always, I’ve reassessed my goals and reasons for homeschooling. Every now and then, I start to lose confidence and question my goals, but what’s interesting is I always get some sort of sign that reminds me why Troy and I decided to homeschool. I was reading this book about incorporating poetry into daily life and it’s quite an unusual place to find an answer to my doubts:

“In our schools, grades K through 12, students are not so much educated as trained to perform well on standardized tests. They aren’t taught to think for themselves, question, or be curious. They’re encouraged to accept what they’re told without hesitation.” – Poetry as Spiritual Practice by Robert McDowell

Anyways, this year is a tough one because aside from teaching Mica, it’s the first time that Rinoa has a full formal curriculum. You can read about Mica’s subjects and her thoughts on homeschooling here. As for 5-year old Rinoa, she’s tackling first and second grade level subjects. And she’s loving it! Her favorite subject is history! (Would you believe?!) She begs to have history if it’s not scheduled for the day. It’s making Mica, who hates history, crazy!

To keep me sane during school days, I’ve dedicated a 2-hour break in the middle of the day called “quiet time”. During this time, Mica and Rinoa can do whatever they want as long as they stay in their room. It works well for us – it keeps us refreshed and ready for afternoon lessons. It’s especially important since they now have gymnastics class almost every evening.

Mica back to hitting the books this year.

Con mucho amor,