We take homeschooling very seriously!

Most weeks we homeschool at home Monday-Thursday and at co-op in Panama City on Friday. Generally school takes about 4 hours, longer if we have an art project or science experiment. Several of our subjects are taught to both kids at once such as Bible, Geography, Science, and Art/Music. Grace just delves further into those subjects. They have their own lessons in grammar, spelling, reading,and math. Colin also takes Spanish and Grace takes sign language. These are their co-op classes, along with zoology. Co-op classes are taught in a classroom setting with other homeschoolers their age.

We certainly do not completely recreate a classroom setting at home but they both have desks and we decorate the walls with a map, their work, and some cutouts from the school supply store.The desks are practical and the decorations are fun. We have lots of friends who homeschool around the kitchen table and that works too. We're blessed that we have a dedicated space for school.

As Whitney nears retirement his work schedule has gotten much lighter, generally just 3 days a week. He's usually home on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Our school schedule can be more lax on those days.It all depends on what Whitney needs to get done. If he is in the garage or working in the yard, we have a normal schedule. If he participates in school...well, it's not always academic. He teaches them things like...

 preparing for battle. Proper equipment and planning is a must. Fully loaded nerf guns, a wolverine claw and head gear. Don't forget that a stealth fighter will conceal his identity, hence the bandana. This is Home Defense 101.

 As important as proper equipment and planning are, equally so are the instinct and ability to execute a battle plan.

All is fair in love and war. It's all fun and games until...


 

someone catches a nerf bullet to the throat. Especially when that someone is Daddy's Little Girl.

It's important that we have a schedule and we take very seriously the responsibility of educating our children. But we think it's also important to take advantage of the flexibility that homeschooling gives us and throw the schedule out for a day of "Daddy School" every once in a while. You never know what you'll learn on those days. He's trying to convince me to go along with teaching them terminal velocity...something about sky diving being involved???