First Day

We hit the ground running on the first official day of homeschooling. I've prepared, read the books, bought the curriculum, compared theories, and wrote the schedule up on the whiteboard. Today we started.

It feels like I'm getting my kid back.

I'm in charge again, just like when she was little and I knew what was going on with her in all areas of her life because I was there. Now I know what she is studying and can help her connect that information with the rest of the world. I am reading to her at night again, even though she learned to read four years ago. I don't have to be frustrated that they don't teach languages in elementary schools. She's taking two now, Latin and German. She won't grow up monolingual like most Americans.

It's hard work, though. At least it was today. We spent five hours at it, then went to the library for an hour and a half, then finally took the dog for a walk for PE. We'll burn out if we keep up this pace, and all the books I've read have estimated time for seat work between 2-4 hours. I need to scale back. I was more tired than she was. Except for math I think she appreciated the rigorous pace.

When she was going to school where I worked I was still very much connected to what she was doing all day. Since we moved, though, I sent her off to the local elementary school, got her back at the end of the day, and felt completely out of the loop. I even volunteered in her class half an hour a day and still felt had very little idea of what was going on with her.

This is the most precious person in my life.

And it feels like I'm getting her back.