homeschooling update

I thought I would give a little update now that we are about eight weeks into our homeschooling experience. All in all, I would say it's been a very smooth transition for both of us. Elizabeth largely keeps to herself while she's working, which allows me to get my own work done around the house and kitchen.

The way that've we chosen to set our schoolwork schedule for the week is a list organized by subject. She mostly picks and chooses what she wants to work on at any given time, although she's getting good at spreading out things like math, that are more effective when studied daily. We've tried to spread out extracurricular activities so she's only really home all day on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

On Mondays, she's been taking a metal working class our local art school. On Wednesdays, she volunteers at her old elementary school and has violin lessons. And most Fridays she visits some of her middle school friends at their high schools for lunch. She still misses being around her friends on a regular basis, but she enjoys the schoolwork that she's doing. Most weeks she's done with her work by Thursday afternoon, which leaves Fridays to take field trips or watch movies relating to her studies. She has more time for personal reading, she's been teaching herself to play various songs on the keyboard, and she has more time to spend on painting.

The photos above are from our excursion to the Reynolda House Museum of Art last Friday. Their new exhibit, The Artist's Garden, was a wonderful treat, full of American Impressionist paintings. After we had our fill of the museum, we wandered the gardens. Well, I wandered; Elizabeth mostly read. And somewhere in there she talked me into an Art-o-mat purchase of "modern cave art".