First Week of School

Well we made it through our first week of school.    We decided to try an e-school this year.   An e-school is an online public school.   The children are given curriculum and computers and assigned a teacher, but the parent is the main learning coach and work is submitted online.   I knew it would be an interesting first week as you try and settle into a new routine and also start something new.   Luckily I went into it expecting a challenge.   My kids spent roughly 7-8 hours a day last week completing school work.   It was insane and overboard.   I have a friend who does the same school we do and she has 10 kids.   I FB'd her a message to find out how the heck she does this.   I also posted some messages on the boards of the school to get some tips.   Apparently many parents cut out a lot of the busy work that is provided as part of the lesson.  

Okay I can handle that... but then comes the challenge of looking at all the lessons before the kids do to weed out what needs to be done, etc.  

I used to be a programmer.   Many times as a programmer you would have to "fix" someone else's code.   You would have to dive into the code, figure out how they are doing it, find out where to rewrite what they have and not mess anything else up, make changes and hope that everything still worked.   It was always easier to start writing with fresh new code.   That is what it has felt like a little bit this first week.   I am digging in someone else's lessons to figure out what works and what I can change.   I'd almost prefer to write my own from scratch... at least then I know what's there and what's not.  

It hasn't all been bad though.   The teachers the kids got have been very helpful and they are nice.   I haven't had any complaining about having to do school (although we've ended up in tears on a few assignments because they were challenging).   The school is very organized and all the classes/lessons/assignments, etc are laid out ahead of time so you can move at your own pace.   The online live sessions have been cool and the kids have really enjoyed being online with their class.   I appreciate the structure that is there.  My daugter is loving all the one on one time she is getting with me because it is necessary.  (This is something I may have pushed off under other circumstances) 

I'm hoping that over time it will become easier.   We did manage to finish school today by 3:30, so it was an improvement.  

That's the school story.   Another thing we started last week was a family bible study every morning.   My husband is home at 8 AM and it was a good time for waking everyone up for the school day, so we have enjoyed family times of worship together.   This has been something I always wanted to do and could never figure out logistically when it would fit.   So glad it has worked for now.  

I guess that's pretty much all I'm going to share for now.   Toodles...