Distracted... Who Me?

sigh... Yes, I've been very distracted recently. I've been doing anything but blogging. I haven't even been taking photos lately! And we've been going very slowly with school.
One of the things I love about homeschooling is the fact that I'm not bound to the school schedule. I can keep going as needed, and take holidays as needed. My cousin's children, however, are, and my children tend to spend a week with them every school holidays, so we do have breaks related to the school schedule. As a matter of fact, the children have just come back from a week with their Nanna, and have a week at home before going to their Grandma's for another week to spend time with their cousins. After that, we will launch back into things, but with a new focus in science and the arts.
The plan for the coming period will be:
Science - Birds - We do a mini-project each Wednesday from our Wildlife Folders (huge set of cards in folders, passed on from a neighbour) as well as reading an appropriate chapter from Window to Bushland.
Composer - Handel - I have a number of cd's of his works, including a full copy of the Messiah, so we will have a good amount to listen to.
Artist - Rembrandt - I have a large (I guess coffee table-sized?) book of selected works. Each work covers 1-2 pages with each image a good 20 x 30cm in size, and accompanied by details of the work without any discussion, which fits with the general premise of CM-style picture study - show them the work, and let them draw conclusions. Sometimes, though, there is a back-story to the painting, eg The Conspiracy of Claudius Civilius, which I, at least, like to find out, and perhaps share with the children while we are looking at it.
But for now we carry on. Studying seals this week (fitting it in to the last week of mammals.)

Do you have to be smart to homeschool?

A question was recently asked in a forum I'm on - do you have to be smart to homeschool? Well, do you?
No.
So what characteristic(s) do you need to homeschool?
Dedication to your child(ren).
That's pretty much it. Everything else flows out of that. Junior needs help with maths? I am dedicated to finding out a way of helping him. Janey wants to learn French? I am dedicated to finding a way for her to learn, whether it's using a native-French-speaking tutor (because there's one available, and I can afford their fees) or finding a good online language program for free (because http://www.livemocha.com/ is brilliant!)
I believe that if you are a fit parent, you are fit to homeschool.
Now this is not to say there won't be challenges. There will be plenty of challenges. You will need all your dedication, all your patience, all your will and strength to do this. You will need your self-control to make you do the work, day after day. Find a way to make it interesting. Find a method that will help your child learn and understand. Learn how they learn, understand what they need to understand. Help them to know that education is more than just sums and spelling, but to also know that sums and spelling are important, because they are some of the basic skills required to communicate with others, to get your needs met.
You also need people. Other people. Your husband (because homeschoolers are usually women) to support you, your family and friends to accept you, and other homeschoolers to talk to, to tell you that, Yes, life happens, and Junior and Janey can be real little brats about doing their maths at times. Someone to listen to you rant, to console you when you're tired, and to suggest some new curriculum that might fit in with your educational philosophy and/or your child's preferred learning style. Someone to tell you what an educational philosophy is, or to explain about learning styles. Life can be hard without these other people, and if you're dedicated to your child(ren), and have decided that the best thing for them is homeschooling, then you need to get your own support network going. You have to be dedicated about your own needs, too.
Once you've got the dedication, you can branch out from there. You can consider educational philosophies. You can look at curricula, and think about the interesting extras that your children might be interested in, or that won't interest them initially, but would be useful to have in the backs of their brains in 10, 20, 30 years time. Without this dedication, however, you may find yourself maneuvered into a position that you cannot maintain, and experience the exhaustion that comes from being something or someone that you are not.

Well, that's food for thought. Hopefully it was coherent, and actually said what I wanted it to say.

His First Chapter Book

A cause for celebration - Mark had read his first chapter book! We went to the library today, and I saw some books titled 'Boyz Rule!' and thought that would appeal to Mark, so I pointed them out. He selected all 3 books, and got them out himself. He has now read 1, and is half-way through the second book. I'm so proud of him. He hasn't liked to get books out, but if I can find books that appeal, we might just have something.