4 Months Into The School Year

Anyone who has kids and home schools or better yet anyone who has kids. Knows that having kids is hard enough with out fearing that your child will not love school. Learning is so important but how do you know if your children really love there school? 

Has it really already been 4 months since we made the switch?

I promised that I would post an update on my kids moving to the Seton Home Study Program. Yet I never thought that it would be how great it has been for us. I can honestly say that I heard a lot about this program. The good, bad and ugly of this school came out of the wood work. 

Things like....

"There is a lot of book work."

"You can't keep up with the lesson plan day by day."

"The kids love this program, it's unlike any program I have seen. "

" You can customize the program for each of your children."

" You child will do more work in Seton than in any public school I have ever seen. "

Well it's all TRUE!! 

This program is not for those who want to ' unschool. '

After a few months of craziness and doing this program. It is honestly the best thing we could have done for our kids. I know when you go down the list for this program grade by grade. It does look like it will be a lot of book work for the kids. However once you dive on in and see what they are doing in the classes it really is not. 

Here is a look at how my kids get things done every day. 

I am big into writing check list and making it clear what will be done and when. However with Seton we have decided to allow the kids to have the list of what needs to be done for the day. So they can learn time management on there own. They both really do love being able to be free to get things done on there own. 

It's not a perfect picture, its not a commercial grade picture. 
It is just real life  and for us it is what works the best. 

I write subject that my children need to do on the board every night. Along with what they need to get done for that day. ( Yes there are things listed more than once but that is due to my children skipping over items. Then stating that they didn't see some items. So a mom has to do what a mom has to do. lol ) 

When one of my children complete something on the list for the day. They mark  with there color for the day to let me know that they have completed it. It gives them a sense of  accomplishment and control. As much as I know and they know that they are not in control most of the time. It is nice to let them be the boss of what they do and when they do it. As long as they get everything done before dinner they are free to do it in any order they want. 

My kids normally get all of there class work done by 2 pm every day. Then they are free to play, read or do what every they would like to do.

We have already seen the kids grow into these amazing smart future adults. They are loving there class work every day even on the days when they don't get the grade they should have. The big debate right now is that they want to add a class to the work load that they already have. 
So it is still up in the air if they will be allowed to add Latin to there work load this year or not. 
However to go from having children who where said to truly struggle with school. Who did not enjoy going to school at all other than to play with there friends. To having my son say his favorite subject in school is hand writing. When it use to be playing with his friends or lunch. My daughter says her favorite subject is now Science. Which was also her favorite subject in public school however she was learning " baby stuff ." In her opinion now she is learning about what she really wants to learn about. She plans to be a cardiovascular surgeon when she grows up. She loves having the chance to start learning about what is her passion in life. 

I don't know what the rest of the year has to offer but I can only hope that at the end of the year. They are happy and love there school. That they have learned more than they ever thought that they could learn. 

We will keep updating everyone on their progress. 
If you have any questions please feel free to keep emailing me or comment and I will try my best to answer. 

The Big Switch .... To Seton Home Study

To switch or not to switch that is the question!!

I have been searching and questioning this whole process for about a year now. 

The first time I talked to my husband about homeschooling he was of course 100% on board.

Yet we still struggled with if we should home school or send them to a private Catholic School. 

I wanted to send them to a private Catholic school however I couldn't find one that fit with my needs and wants. Along with my husbands needs and wants for our children's education. 

Most of the Private schools in the area we live in had common core. That was NOT something that was acceptable to my husband and I at all. So we looking slightly into online Catholic Schooling. In which our children would be home with us but they would get books and a lesson plan from a Private Catholic school. After some time of searching I felt like " what was the point when I could just full on home school the kids. It can not be that hard since I see people doing it all the time." 

BOY WAS I WRONG! 

Home schooling is not as easy as I thought it would be. Though we did enjoy is most of the time. There was a lot more work to be done on my part. Just coming up with what we should and should not have our children learn was harder than I thought it would be. There are so many options out there for what your child can learn and different ways to teach it all. 

When I found out I was pregnant I didn't think it would effect our home schooling at all. I was again wrong and I learned the hard way. 

So after doing a lot more research and truly looking into all of the different options we have for our children's education. 

We think we have figured out the best way to go about this coming up year. 

After a long talk and the kids also researching the school on their own. We all decided to sit down and vote about it and check again and again to make sure we could afford it.

We are very Happy to be making the BIG! 

Switch to a Private Catholic Home Study Program. 

Where out children will be able to get a great education along with having some of the fun educational things we enjoy doing. 

The school is accredited and it is awesome from what we have learned.  

I do not personally think it is a homeschooling program. It is no different ( okay in my opinion better than ) the k12 public school at home option that some states have. 

We pay a tuition just like any private school, my kids turn in their call work and do testing and its graded by the school. 

They have a school song, uniforms, a teaching staff, a honor code, books and a lesson plan for each child. The best part is they have options of what classes they take. 

They are hands on and we can not wait to start!

We wrote a list of everything that we wanted in a school and this school has just about everything. 

The only thing missing is that there of course is no sports for our kids to play. However we have found many different things for the kids to do sports wise. 

We could not be happier and are so greatful for everyone who has contacted us to give us your opinion of different schools. 

We will be doing the full year round schooling and the kids are so excited that they have already started. They are doing so many things trying to make sure that their 4th and 5th grade years go as awesome as they want them to. 

I look forward to sharing the journey with everyone. I will post more about how Seton is working out. For our family as we go along. 

-Stephanie