Action, Reflection, New Action

My friends and colleagues who have been in Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) will get a kick out of the title of this post. Action, reflection, new action was a huge part of the CPE method. We put it into play with Damaris' schooling these last few weeks. We had located an online public school that is free that we thought would work for us. After about three weeks, we knew it just wasn't working at all. There were rules that were just too stringent that we struggled with. And it was miserable around the house as Damaris tried to find work to fill the hours after completing the daily assignments but not the hour requirement.

So, Russ and I talked yesterday and decided that homeschooling was still the right thing to do, but we needed to make some changes. Ultimately, we want to purchase the curriculum we used previously before she went to public school. However, that curriculum is going to cost us about $400 plus whatever it costs for a Spanish course (haven't decided which one to get yet). We just don't have that right now.


So I went searching online and was able to put together a curriculum that costs us almost nothing but covers everything she needs to be learning. We'll be able to include fun outings and I've reached out to the homeschool group here in town to try to get connected with them. Damaris is really excited about the change.


Already today, we are feeling much less stress and it has not been a fight to get her to do school. She is taking advantage of the fact that her G-Pa is off work today and she is going with him to pick up her cousin Lola and have a fun outing with them. If we were still doing the original curriculum, she would not have been able to do this because of the time requirements.


As I sit here typing this, there is such a sense of peace and calm in the house. This is what the homeschooling I remember (we homeschooled originally through the middle of 4th grade) was like. Sure, there were times when things got stressed or frustrating because of the struggle to learn and/or teach a particular concept, but overall, it was like it is this morning. So, we put into place action, reflection, new action and this new action seems to be working for us. Thanks CPE! LOL!

Until next time,


Some images are from Homeschool Boutique