Farewell Coastal - Hello art, science & more field trips

Over the past months I have been mulling over the idea of leaving the charter school we use (Coastal Academy) and doing that extra day on our own. (My kids have been going to school once a week and doing art, science & computer there). I've been very happy with Coastal, but I had a feeling the vaccine law was going to force our hand eventually, and the time has come. We vaccinate our kids- but we do it according to our timeline & schedule with the help of our doctor's expertise. I could actually send two of my kids to Coastal, but not the other two. And why would I do that? Everything is all or nothing for me. ;)

So what does this mean? A few changes:

• Monday will no longer be our field trip day- Friday will be. Yay! It's so much better having a reward at the end of the week. 

• We will (probably) be doing our regular school days Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday. Get it done and out of the way.

• Biggest change- we will be doing art, science & computer at home. I'll donate a day for that (probably Thursday?). I already have ideas mulling around in my head... Art- I studied art history in college, and my kids have taken a class at Coastal that I've loved and will probably try to "copy". It's called Meet the Masters. They study a famous artist one week and the next week they make artwork in his/her style. And the best part of about it is: I can choose artists that go along with the time period we're studying in history! I'm pretty excited about this and can't wait for this school year to end so I can start implementing this art program. In addition to this we'll continue going to art museums for our field trips. I'm also considering putting them in an art class here or there so they can learn art types that I don't know (glass blowing, anyone?) Science- we have a gazillion science kits that I've purchased through the school and haven't really used. So we'll probably go through those first. We'll also go on science/nature field trips- explore the great outdoors, science museums, national parks, plus there are so many great documentaries we can watch. Computer- they do a computer job every day (typing, Rosetta Stone, Lexia or Khan). But on this extra-curricular day I'll teach them something different like how to use word, spreadsheets, drive, and especially coding. I'm not sure how much we'll really do here, but if I miss important stuff they'll be able to take computer classes in college (when they're 14) and can catch up then. Obviously technology has never been one of my main goals. 

• Reaching out to other homeschool families. It would be fun to have friends on our field trips. Or maybe have someone else do science and I do art. (Although that might be more stressful than fun). Because we're leaving behind a network of homeschool families and teachers and friends, I feel like we need to at least attempt to connect with other homeschool families. We shall see what unfolds. Maybe if every week is too much we could do every other week or once a month. 

• No free day for myself. I've come to rely heavily upon the day I have at home with my kids at school. I use it to prep for school and get caught up on my to-do list. So what am I going to do? I need to be more disciplined about getting to bed on time. If I do get to bed on time, I can wake up on time (6ish) and have a couple hours every morning to get my stuff done. (Plus some time in the afternoon). With this time, I won't miss that extra day and everything will work smoothly. 

Wish me luck!