Homeschooling Options: Outside Classes

One of the great things about homeschooling is there are so many wonderful options. I don't know of any two homeschools which look the same and this is such a fabulous change from the typical one-size-fits-all educational model we typically see in the traditional classroom.

Beth and her teacher!

Our girls participate in a homeschool learning center and take classes one or two days a week. The learning center model differs from a co-op in several ways. First, the parents are not necessarily the teachers. While I am teaching a class at the learning center, most of the teachers do not have students who attend. Another way we differ is we have a full-time administrator who functions as a principal and plays a very active role in everything which occurs. There is also a board of directors, students pay tuition, and there is a dress-code. In reality it functions much more like a private school offering classes to homeschoolers more than anything else.

Rose and her teacher!

This is the third year for Rose and the first year for Beth. The main core of the classes they are taking is science. I love this for so many reasons. As a learning center with tuition their resources are much greater than I could have here at home. I also see a benefit to corporate learning, especially with science. Problem solving and strategizing is completely different when you bring a diverse group of individuals together. I appreciate that our learning center focuses on science, geography, and humanities rather than math and language arts at the younger levels. It does not matter how well a child reads or is able to do math because those things are not emphasized.

The junior division (middle school) focuses on literature and writing (This is what I teach!) and science. These classes are structured to help prepare students for a more structured learning environment for high school. We give grades and have a more traditional style classroom setting. This picture is from my first year teaching and I am beginning my fourth year at Deerstream Learning Center. My degree is in middle school language arts and this is genuinely my dream job. I get to work one day each week teaching my very eager students for 3 hours. Discipline problems do not exist. The students enjoy learning and are, for the most part, excited to participate in our discussions. Because Deerstream is a non-denominational Christian organization I am also free to share Christ and can bring out spiritual truth as we study together.

This also leaves time for me to focus specifically on instruction with Grace who I have said before just can't get enough learning. I think this will be good for her. Unfortunately, she doesn't see it this way! All she sees is her big sisters get to go off for a day and she misses out. Sometimes she goes with her daddy to church in the office for the morning, but usually she is with me.

This is our administrator. Grace was feeling left out of the pictures so she was excited to have her picture taken too!