If this family is one thing, it's flexible. I've always loved the adage, "Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be bent out of shape." Hopefully the flexibility we've had no choice but to maintain over the years means that our family has a significantly lesser chance of being bent out of shape.
Matt is still deciding what he wants to do with regard to either continuing on into next year and dual enrolling at the community college, or finishing out and graduating early since he will have enough credits long before next May.
Rosie turns 15 in five days. We've been unschooling since leaving the private school and returning to home education at Christmas. We all sat down as a family and talked about it in January and my thought was that we would see what happens: unschooling would either be a good fit for our family lifestyle/learning style, or it would not be a good fit and we would ideally be shown what would fit better. It became a bit clearer today that Rosie in particular wants and needs more structure and guidance academically.
We are setting up our schooling area in our office/schoolroom so that everyone can be in closer proximity for academic work in the mornings. Matt will be teaching Rosie's math and economics. She has already completed both American and World history. She has had forensic and marine science, and will be working at the science museum this summer so her sciences will be covered. We will be doing life skills through co-op, and some of our language arts will be coordinated with our weekly co-op activities. We will do daily vocabulary, writing mechanics, spelling, and literature study here in our one-room-schoolhouse environment. She will be taking first aid and CPR classes through the local library (I will be checking on the details for those tomorrow when we go to the library).
I become more convinced by the day that I was born to teach. That won't end when my own children move beyond their "school" days. I'm looking forward to creating a learning environment where I can be a help to parents in teaching their own children, and may possibly establish a private school at some point in the future. I am praying about all that and looking forward to what God has in store for us as we remain flexible and open to His leading.
Is this flexibility? Sometimes it feels a bit like bungee-jumping.
