Textbooks, version 2.0

We started the dreaded textbooks this past month. The kids and I are resigned to muddling through them, weeding out the unnecessary. Admittedly some of it has been good for us, and downright enjoyable at times. It has provided my the opportunity to carve out individual time with each child. I love that. It made me realize that I had started to live a little faster than I really want to, and slowing down feels good. The kids do about an hour to 2 hours of "work" a day. They write in cursive, we do English and Math and Spelling together, me learning along with them at times, and refreshing my memory of things long forgotten. But the videos sort of fell by the wayside. They took too long for the kids liking, and didn't help as much with explaining as I thought they would. I kind of wanted a "replacement teacher" (or at least I thought I did), and it turned out not to be what I expected. But that's ok! Because I realized that I really do enjoy doing their textbooks with them, in a more relaxed environment. More relaxed thanks to my seeing that textbooks aren't the only way to learn. We don't do tests. I don't grade their work. There's no need to. I do it with them, so I see them "gettting" the concept. And that's all I'm concerned with. I am constantly on the lookout for more interesting ways to teach them concepts, and this may be a temporary fix. But it's working for the moment, and that's good enough for me.