Homeschooling and the holidays

I haven't written much about homeschooling lately, mainly because there isn't much to write.  Up until this past week we were following our normal schedule.  And since it's just what we do, it hardly seems worth writing about.  Last week was the end of my scheduled lesson plans.  I knew that I would be entering the 'frantic sewing phase' of the season and it was no use fighting it.  As a compromise, I scheduled end of semester projects for everyone to work on.  That way our schedule would be more relaxed, it would be a change of pace, and we could still call it school.  (Well, I call just about everything school, but you know what I mean.  I think.)  I have never done this before because I had never planned in so much detail before.  I'm glad I did.  By planning over the summer it allowed me to think about what would work for summarizing what we've learned.

This week everyone is working on creative writing.  As this involves computers, everyone is happy.  They are each writing a story about a fictional child who lives in a fictional lighthouse, using all the information about lighthouses they have learned over the past few months.  I'm pleased with what I've seen so far.  The only glitch is that at least one of my children still doesn't quite get the 'save' function on the computer (despite multiple explanations and urgings NOT TO CLICK ANYTHING), and has had to do a bit of recreating.  It's a learning process.  I also have some small wooden lighthouses which they will be painting next week.

So, we're still learning even if I don't write about it.  I'm also beginning to think I'm not so much a homeschooling blogger as a blogger who homeschools.  Until that feeling changes, I will probably only mention the whole homeschooling-thing tangentially   I'm happy to answer specific questions, though.  I'm always happy to answer specific questions, it saves me from having to come up with a topic on my own!

Alright, time to get back to the sewing machine...