ORVA (like ORCA only better?)

Okay, deja vu? I am enrolling in ORVA. WHY, do you ask? Why go through the attendance craziness? The following the teachers advice? The rote memorization? The curriculum that means nada? WHY?

Schedule, organization, accountability.

Don't ya know I am a Libra, balance is pretty much tattoo'd on my brain waves. We unschool one year, then do something like ORCA. Then decompress on year, then attempt some other elaborate plan. I like to say I am consistent, but I am only consistent at INconsistancy. Just think, my kids will be able roll with whatever life throws there way (kidding).

We are going to *try* it until Winter break (we start in Sept) and see how it goes. Will keep everyone posted. Yes, this is against my homeschooling philosophies, but frankly, we gotta shake up the rut somehow!

Summer School?

So for the rest of regular school attending society, school is almost out! For the 2006-2007 year we used a very generous and oppressive online school, ORCA to be exact, and let me tell you how hard that was to balance ORCA for 2 kids, take care of a preschooler and a NEWBORN baby...a year with many tears shed by all. However, it did give a kick start to reading.

This last school year, the one about to end, 2007-2008- we unschooled all the way. My house look a little better for it, the kids were a lot happier and well, I got to enjoy my toddler (*was* baby) a lot more!

The question is, do I dare *try* to homeschool over the summer, or just dedicate our summer to just reading books and me learning more about Unit Studies & Lapbooking? That sounds good! Start fresh and new in the Fall! Our co-op is planning on starting up and going bigger this fall, so some prep for that will be good too.

Happy Summer!

Unschooling the Lazy Way

We are less than homeschoolers, we are less than unschoolers...we are mediaschoolers. First, I want to say that we aren't less in a sense of "we equal less" but in a less as an "educational substance" amount.

After we stopped doing ORCA, we were free at last...free to do whatever we wanted, whenever! So, I set this goal of getting the house caught up before Winter Equinox, then it was New Years, then it was the end Jan...Feb...now March. You see the pattern? ORCA was like a ball & chain, but it was also a good thing...it held us accountable and kept the kids doing something, even if that something was mundane and almost meaningless in the grand scheme of things, it was something.

So, in the past month, I haven't caught up on housework, I have been blogging, doing my own research online, and depressed.

I did turn a new leaf this month though, the kids have been reading books at least once a day, and every so often they do penmanship. Sometimes they do educational stuff online. Oh, and less media overall since I put the no video/computer games in affect a week or two ago. Progress, but we need another shake up in the right direction.

Yesterday I locked all the non-educational channels on cable, so that it wasn't so easy to turn on. No computer, Gamecube or DS/Advance games at all. Now they just watch PBS, Animal Planet and skim around for other "educational pursuits" on the TV. Still, not good enough, but better.

I am starting to feel the "ohmygosh" Morgan's going to be a "junior high kid" next year! But in reality, he is only going to be 11 in June, he can still be considered an "elementary school kid" next year too.

The next step...NO TV, period. We'll get there!