La Vue de Chez Nous

When we went to France we decided to homeschool our girls. We wanted an isolated year together; it was a rare opportunity to have a year of freedom as a family.

We planned from the beginning to pare down and teach the bare basics, and let the experience do its own teaching. I didn't anticipate the
resistance. I figured it was the adjustment from going from a room
full of 20+ peers to a mom and sisters learning together. I assumed
they were a little slow to re-engage after a long summer. I figured we
would get into a routine and all would get easier over time. All of
those were true (although the routine was very difficult to pin down!)
But still there were some things that didn't seem quite right, and
didn't get easier. Over the course of the year it seemed that some
subjects came easily, while others weren't at "grade level" (according
to my understanding at the time). I felt overwhelmingly inexperienced
to handle anything out of the norm, and felt internal pressure to work
overtime to make sure all the girls were keeping up.

We didn't know how to find the people we could trust to help us
address the concerns we had, so I ordered some books, read what I
could on the internet and figured that at the end of the summer, when
we were started into our new lives, we would make getting necessary
help a first priority.

Looking back, I am grateful that I had that year to experience and
understand the girl's unique learning needs, differences and styles. I
was grateful that we could make accommodations in an uncompetitive
environment instead of learning amidst the progress of 20+ other
same-age children. It was a very valuable year of discovery.

I thought our next family adventure would be moving to a new home in a
new place, reuniting with all of our stuff in storage and starting a
new job. But instead, what we thought would be a few months with
Geoff's parents has turned into a year, and the "adventure" has been a
deep dive into how a young brain develops and how best to nurture it.
Clearly we are only at the beginning of this adventure! And what an
exhilarating and insightful adventure it has been.

Adele charting the growth of her Orange Bell Pepper plant