Weekly Wrap-Up: The One with the Crazy March Snow

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Weekly Wrap-Up

Happy Friday! It’s hard to believe it’s the last Friday in March. Where has the month gone? I’m okay with it going by so quickly, though, because I’m ready for spring! I mean, I know it’s officially spring, but I’m ready for it to feel like spring. We’ve had some crazy weather this month.

On Tuesday afternoon, it started snowing like crazy! It was these big, fluffy flakes that, had it been colder, would have had me worried about driving conditions. It was in the forties, though. Yes, forty-something degrees and snowing like crazy. Then, the sun came out – while it was snowing! It melted right away, of course, but it was something to see.

March snow

I think the biggest relief of the week might be the fact that we got our taxes filed on Monday. I have never, ever put off filing this long. I must have said no less than a dozen times on Monday how relieved I was to have that out of the way.

The following photo shows a scene that I have so been enjoying lately – my view in the afternoons:

Independent Learners

I get to actually get real, live work done while my kids work independently nearby…or in their rooms or in the living room. After years of mom-intensive homeschooling, these years of increasing independence are so welcome. I’m not going to get too lax with my youngest two, though. I made the mistake in High School Round 1 of thinking that the ability to work independently meant that my input wasn’t needed. That is so not true.

Our independent learners still need us to continue being actively involved in their educations. Yesterday, I shared tips for staying involved with independent learners.

You know how sometimes you know something in your mind, but it hasn’t quite reached your conscious level of thought yet? Yeah, I had one of those moments earlier this week when I realized that Josh is going to be in high school next year. I mean, I knew that, but it just hadn’t fully hit me yet. Ugh! Even though I have an outline in my mind, it’s time to start doing some serious planning.

It’s also time to consider how much I want to separate him and Megan. They’ve always done school together, with the exceptions of math and reading, since they’re only 21 months apart. It may still make sense to keep them together for history, science, and probably writing, but there are points for separating them more, too, such as the facts that they need to be able to fully work at their own pace and I don’t want the extracurricular activities and opportunities of one to derail the other’s school day. There is much to consider.

For those of you with kids who have schooled together, did you begin to separate them in high school? Any tips?

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Kris Bales is a newly-retired homeschool mom and the quirky, Christ-following, painfully honest founder (and former owner) of Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers. She has a pretty serious addiction to sweet tea and Words with Friends. Kris and her husband of over 30 years are parents to three amazing homeschool grads. They share their home with three dogs, two cats, a ball python, a bearded dragon, and seven birds.

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18 Comments

  1. We’re facing the same issue. With two girls the same age and a boy who is only nine months older, you’d think schooling them together would be simple. Yet it really isn’t. All three have different strengths and weaknesses, so even though they are the same academic year they are vastly different in their abilities, sometimes being as much as two or three years apart. Decisions indeed.
    I can’t believe you have snow! I thought you lived in near desert conditions compared to us over here in wet and chilly Britain. Every time I walk through the cactus hot house at the RHS gardens I think of you! Maybe they need to bring in a snow machine to make it a bit more authentic…..

    1. The snow is very unusual – especially this late in the year.

      You’ll have to let me know what you come up with for the kids close in age schooling together thing and I’ll let you know what we come up with. I may stick with the old adage “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” and just leave things as they are. I’m not a good decision-maker. 🙂

  2. I have always separated the high school kids. There’s just something about letting them go their own way and choose their own path. Even now that we’re unschooling, my 9th grader’s day looks completely different from everyone else’s. She is more intentional about what she does and actually uses textbooks (loosely) because she is more comfortable that way.

  3. Wow – we saw a few flurries down here but all out snowing – and the sun coming out! Spring!

    My two high schoolers are just a year apart. 10th and 9th grade this year. We do many subjects together – including science, history, writing. That makes things easier. Plus they can collaborate on some assignments. They have different learning styles and notice different aspects of something they are studying. But they are on different levels in Rod and Staff grammar. Plus my daughter has different interests than my son, so that is the fun of choosing high school electives.

    1. Yes, it might be that it’s the electives where we split up and leave the history/science/writing as is.

  4. Crazy weather here as well – it’s snowing as I type this.

    No advice about separating older kids and their studies (I only have 1!).

  5. I’ve always schooled my two boys together, who are also 21 months apart. It has worked well, and I too, wonder if it will have to come to an end. One is what we’ll call “ahead”, and the other is slightly behind due to dysgraphia and dyscalculia, but he’s making great strides this year, his sixth grade year. Bless you and thank you for all your wonderful wisdom!

    1. That’s the situation we’ve got, too – one who has always learned fairly quickly and easily and one who struggles a bit, so it was always easy to meet in the middle.

  6. I’ll be interested to see what you decide. My kids all have 7 or 8 year gaps between them, so it’s not something that has ever come up over here. Our problems revolve more around the 6 year old wanting to do his sister’s middle school work, especially if we’re talking about science.

  7. My girls are 2 1/2 years apart and so far we’ve schooled together, but I’ve wondered about high school, too. My oldest is now a 6th grader and we’re just starting to let her work separately to foster independence. You will have to keep us posted on your thought process and decision on this. 😀

  8. Oddly, we don’t have our kids doing much work together. I say oddly because we had 8 kids in 12 years and it would be logical to do stuff together, but my teaching style is that I give the kids daily or weekly or biweekly assignments and then help them as needed. Our eldest is 14 and will be in 9th grade next year, and I’m working on not panicking about it. Our 9th child arrives in June, so I’m going to have a high schooler while caring for a new baby. Honestly, I wonder how I’ll manage, but I cling to the truth that the Lord God gave me these kids and led us to homeschooling, so all I need to do is pray and be diligent within the limits of my own ability. Our eldest is, thankfully, an “easy” student — most things come easily, and she is very diligent. Your advice to not require too much independence is wise though, and I’ll keep it in mind.

  9. My girls are 2 years apart, and we do everything together except math and reading. My youngest is an excellerated learner, so she does the work on the grade level of the oder sister. However, the oldest is moving into 6th grade next year, so I’m breaking her out into a separate language arts, and the following year she’ll be in a separate science. I guess I’m easing them into the separation.

  10. Ah, snow…it just keeps coming this year! I’m with you- bring on the real Spring.

    As for high school and splitting- my kiddos are almost 3 years apart, and 2 grades. I keep just a couple things together and split most.

    I have another tab open with your post on independent students and remaining involved. I “messed” it up the first go round as well. Fortunately, my daughter still loves me 🙂 I do a lot more scaffolding with my son who is a freshman than I ever did with my daughter. Lol- she did turn out okay… 😉

    Hope you have a great weekend!

    1. I think mine has turned out okay, too. 🙂 It’s nice to hear from another mom who’s been there and done that, though. They really should come with a manual. {grin}

  11. It’s funny. I didn’t homeschool my 2 oldest together as one graduated from public school and the other I homeschooled for 10th grade then dual enrolled her. However, they’ve been together for the last year taking the same college classes and are graduating with their AA’s at the same time. The funny part is my oldest told me he actually likes having his sister in class. It gives him a constant study partner and his grades have improved because he has someone to discuss things with. After they transfer, they have selected different majors and will only take 1 or 2 classes together, but they decided they wanted to be college roommates and found an off campus apartment together. SO…I say all they to mention that some separation is a good thing, but working together also has benefits.

    1. That’s a good point. One benefit that I definitely plan to capitalize on will be when they take their foreign language class. It’s definitely much easier to learn a foreign language when you’ve got someone to practice with.

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