Well, it has come to be that time of year. Scott and I are discussing next school year in detail, trying to decide if we want to remain with OHVA or if we want to break loose and go off on our own. This year has been REALLY good for us, the kids are really learning a lot of great stuff and they have definitely grown with k12. I also have experienced a great amount of growth this year, my confidence has skyrocketed by having the accountability to a school for our lessons. I have done amazing things with my time management and ability to actually do something by pretty much being forced to all school year.
When we first chose to use OHVA to teach this school year, we saw it as a transition for us from traditional public school to homeschool. We needed the support for our own lack of confidence in this area, although we knew flat out that this was the right choice for our family. I can't imagine having my girls in public school now after 3/4 of a school year with OHVA, and I'm seeing myself learning more about their learning styles and needs and my own teaching needs every day that goes by. We weren't sure a few months ago what we would end up doing, specifically because we were doing so well with ohva up to that point.
As the school year progressed, I started getting antsy about how ohva requires us to teach all subjects a certain amount. I understand why they dictate this, and fully agree that the girls need history and science; however, Scott and I both feel that at this stage in their learning, we need to be focusing more on laying a solid foundation in reading and math. Melissa is dyslexic, and struggles every day with her reading still. She's made amazing strides in her reading this school year, and I know that continuing to work with her daily we will continue to see these improvements. We aren't at all concerned about her not learning to read well; we know that this will come in time. We also know that for her to suceed at reading, she needs the freedom to be able to explore it more than she can right now because our curriculum dictates that she does x, y, and z for each subject and these things take valuable hours from our day. These hours we could spend sitting together and reading books together, building her fluency, confidence, and improving her skills. I want to be able to focus on this area with her, and provide her with a wide variety of materials in multiple areas that she can sit and read to us. Same with Lydia, her own reading has stalled because I am unable to really sit and spend time working with her on it just like I am unable to do with Melissa. OHVA won't allow me to combine the girls into the same history, science, and art programs even though they are only a grade level apart, and I can't teach 2 full day programs completely separately like that. It is hard enough for me to teach a full day and a half day program within the time that I have outside of doing chores, soccer practices and games, cooking, and all the other aspects of my life. I am stretched at my limit with the program as it is currently, and I am failing to provide the girls with all the time they should be given as it is with their lesson materials.
All these things have led us to make a very difficult decision. We do truly love the k12 materials, they are wonderful. We enjoy working with ohva also. The school has been a wonderful experience for us, and our teacher for the girls is amazing as well. We have truly enjoyed this school year, and have learned a lot. It has given us something that we never thought we'd get either: our happy little girl back in Melissa. The public school here in our city completely killed that light in her eyes last school year. She went from an active happy child to a scared, withdrawn, shy child who was rude, mean, and disrespectful to everyone she came in contact with. This in itself was reward enough for us, and has sealed our fate to homeschooling for the rest of our girls' schooling until they enter college (if they choose to go)
So, we decided that we just can not continue to work with k12 and the program as written to make it work for our family at this time. We need to go more independent in our lessons to provide the kids each with the individual time they each deserve for reading and math. So, come June I will be figuring out my notification letter for our district to homeschool the girls next fall independently. We will continue to work on reading and math at their individual paces, and will "lifeschool" for history, science, art, and other subjects. We are planning to get the garden up here soon to provide us with opportunities for science and health lessons, and will read great literature and go on field trips to areas around the state for history/ geography. I don't know how it will work out for us, but I have faith that it will work beautifully in the end.
As the girls get older and their needs change, our homeschool will also change. But at this point, this is what we need to be doing for our family.
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