With Homeschooling we have followed a pretty loose from of The Thomas Jefferson Education (TJED) philosophy. Basically meaning that while the children are young they play and then enter into a structured learning environment gradually when they are ready and then become self taught learners.
Serenitie has turned into just what we had imagined when we decided to homeschool eight years ago. She truly manages her own education with minimal input or management from her parents. Now that we are signed with an ALE I am required to report her learning and low and behold I have very limited insight into what she learns because she does it all herself. I don’t help with homework or papers or projects. I barely know when they are due or what they are. All I know is that when I talk with her it is obvious that she is way above my learning curve and that what I do see of her work it makes me proud and a little in awe and that others tell me she is incredibly intelligent. I occasionally think that I am doing her a dis-service by not being more involved with her academia but then again she is excelling without my input and there are so many other things that I could beat myself up over that I am choosing not to dwell on this one.
A big part of her success is a group of LEMI (Leadership Education Mentoring Institute) classes and amazing Home schooling moms that teach them.
She has taken Shakespeare Conquest and Key of Liberty (focusing on the founding documents) in prior years and this semester took Sword of Truth an in depth study of the civil war and why it occurred. Her knowledge of the topic literally astounds me.
In these classes there are no grades given. There are a set number of activities (books to read, passages, to memorize, papers to write, presentations to give, etc) and if they meet them all there is a reward at the end. The reward for this class was a civil war era sword and she was not about to miss out.
Of course the whole family had to go to her sword ceremony to support her. I know this is the right thing in that we support eachother but holy cow it is frustrating to have all these kids and try to keep them well behaved the whole time.
She was on the rebel side and served as commander for their re-enactment battles.
This is her amazing teacher. I believe one of the reasons these classes are so successful is because they are taught by moms who are really interested and passionate about learning as much as the kids are.
There is no way to express how thankful I am for them and their influence on my child. she has truly been shown that learning is exciting and she has a passion and eagerness to learn that I so wish I had.
Of course no celebration is a celebration without a celebration dinner. (Is there a rule as to how many times you can say a word in one sentence?)
In our case, five guys burgers and fries is THE place to be!!! These guys do a burger like none other and their cajun fries will make you think everything is perfect in the world. I seriously can’t get enough, as evidenced by my weight gain….
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