What kind of homeschooler am I?

[ciroccoj]

Got tagged to do this over on Facebook, but thought I'd do it here instead. This updates to FB automatically anyway.

1. What time do you get up?
   Anywhere between 7 and 8:30. Used to be earlier.
   
   
2. What do your children wear to school?
   Um. Clothing?
   
   
3. What curriculum have you tried and hated? What have you tried and loved?
   Don't really use any set curriculum. Other than Story of the World, which we love. We're about halfway through The Middle Ages right now.
   
   
4. Who is your most inspirational homeschooling role model?
   Caroline Ingalls ;)
   
   
5. Abeka, Charlotte Mason, unschooling, or Classical?
   Eclectic. We set goals at the beginning of the week for each of 7 subjects (English, French, Spanish, Math, Science, Social Studies, Music, and Art). We often have goals that work together: eg, we're studying Ghana for Social Studies, and Art is making salt blocks and gold nuggets, which were traded in Ghana in the middle ages. Or we're studying the Hundred Year's War for Social Studies and end up watching Henry V for English. (Story of the World helps with this. A lot.)
   
   Also, although we're not unschoolers, we do a lot of stuff on the fly. The kids get interested in something and we end up learning about it, from the internet, the library, museums, movies, etc.
   
   
6. Favorite response to “What about socialization?”
   I totally believe that by and large home schooling socializes kids at least as well as regular school does, in that although they may not spend six hours a day with a group of thirty people the same age as themselves, they do spend a great deal of time with small or large groups of people of all different ages.
   
   As for socialization for my own kids? Personally, I worry about them. Not so much Daniel, but Justin, because he doesn't make friends very easily and mostly just seems to want to play with Daniel. He seems content enough, but I worry about him anyway.
   
   
7. Favorite subject?
   History. Though they love Science With Dad too :)
   
   
8. Favorite field trip ever?
   Hawaii :D :D
   
   
9. Best thing about homeschooling?
   Cannot put it any better than Annette did: It encourages kids to be creative learners and to take risks. In the words of Miss Frizzle, "Take chances, make mistakes, get messy!"
   
   
10. Sports, music, or art?
    Sports is not a problem. They do swimming once a week, Taekwon-do three times, and walking/biking as often as we can. Music and art are a little more difficult, as neither one has even a smidgen of artistic talent. Daniel has the innate sense of rhythm the white race is most famous for, and notes are, to Justin, "more like guidelines, really." Both struggle to draw stick figures.
    
    We try to make art & music interesting. Chris does D&D figure painting with them, Justin often does fancy cooking for his "art" goal, etc.
    
    
11. Beautiful script handwriting, or lightning fast accurate typing?
    See above re. artistry. Typing is a godsend.
    
    
12. Best one stop shopping for school books?
    Scholar's Choice.
    
    
13. One subject you didn’t get to this week:
    English. Didn't quite finish watching Henry V.
    
    
14. What will you do when you run out of kids to teach?
    Hopefully practice law.
    
    
15. Ever give school books as holiday or birthday gifts?
    Not yet. I could see doing it, though. And we've given them educational games before.
    
    
16. Better late or early (delay formal education at home, or start as young as possible?)
    Same as my attitude towards learning in general: go at the kid's speed and ability and desire to learn. Temper it with a bit of "mother/father knows best" if the kid's speed and ability and desire to learn are really problematic for some reason. Eg, Justin is not interested in improving his reading. I am willing to accomodate him to a certain extent, but, I'm sorry, he is going to work on his reading whether he wants to or not.