Orthodox Christian Homeschool - 3rd/4th Grade - Beginning of Year Curriculum Review - Thoughts on Online Schooling/Learning - PART 1

Despite having to make some adjustments to our curriculum line- up already, I still feel like the year is off to a great start. One of the reasons might be is that I'm getting to be fully dedicated to the homeschooling of my 3rd/4th grader, for the most part, for the first time. In previous years, after morning time, I've always had to review my older son's work with him before working with my younger son which could sometimes take a hour. Yes, there were even days when it was 11:30am before I started school with him. We got everything done, but it was hard to manage I'll be honest!

My older son is in 9th grade and is currently taking Latin 1 and Informal Logic from Scholé Academy, Advanced Architecture House Design and Intro to Lit and Comp from CLRC, and Geometry from HSLDA Academy. He is going through Apologia Online Self-Paced Biology on his own, and I am going to manage World Geography and Health with him offline using curriculum from Abeka. So far all of his classes are going well, but we have yet to start the classes from Scholé Academy.

I am SO glad we put him in a school for part of 7th and 8th grade. I really think homeschooling through high school would have been much more challenging if he had not had a taste of what it is like "out there." It's possible not all kids will need this "exposure" but I think that my son did. He is fully embracing his classes now, being homeschooled, and enjoys that he sees that there are other Orthodox Christians in his classes. He is used to being nearly the only Orthodox Christian everywhere he goes except church, so to be part of CLRC and Scholé is something he really appreciates. We both had a hard time embracing online learning at first, since being low-tech and low-screen time has been part of our values and lifestyle for so long. However, we all saw the necessity and value of it after trying the public charter school. It was needed for my son, and for me! (It is just a reality that while, frankly, our culture in America collapses, we can make use of these online systems while we can, to help us keep on keeping on...). Though until trying the public charter, I would have said that being in person with people is always better no matter what....

I don't post often enough or openly enough on this website to have any "regular followers" on this site, nor is that a goal of mine, but if you are reading this, I would share that one of the reasons I post is because I don't have a lot of people in my real life that would want to hear me "info dump" about homeschooling as frequently as I'd like, and also because I have been greatly benefited from curriculum reviews that I have read online. I also like the opportunity to keep my thinking and writing skills fresh since I haven't been in the workforce since I was pregnant with my first son 14.5 years ago!

So without further ado, I would mention that my youngest son was diagnosed with ASD this past summer, though we have always suspected that was the case. However, the information was extremely useful since being homeschooled presents particular challenges and benefits for someone with ASD..

PART 2 to follow....