2013 Showcase Follow Up

As per my last post, we took part in the annual Cary Homeschooler Showcase this Saturday, and I think it accomplished everything that I hoped it would. First off, it got me to review our school year. Other than the obvious organizational benefit, this also helps by cutting short my end-of-year panic attack, as I realize that we did, in fact, do A LOT of STUFF! 

Much of the stuff we do in this family can be hard to pin down. It's not the kind of stuff you can put on a standardized test. One example is the monthly

Homeschool Adventure Days put on by the Schoolhouse of Wonder. The kids go and spend a whole day exploring and playing outside, botanizing, finding bugs and snakes and playing group games amongst the trees. Who do you measure that? I can't even figure out what box to check when I record it in my weekly log. Still, I know its valuable. The feeling I get is a gut feeling born of the wish that I could have done those kinds of things when I was a kid. It's a small piece of the real world, and I love that they can get out there and explore it in all it's gritty uncomfortableness and glory.They come back hot (or cold) and filthy and also tired and hungry, but also really, really happy. 

Here is another thing I can't figure out how to categorize. My daughter is learning how to sing the Torah for her Bat Mitzvah next year. I only just discovered there is such a thing (not being Jewish myself). How do I record that bit of work? Is it music? It's more of a singing chant than a song. Is it Social Studies? Well, it is a part of what has come down through Jewish history and tradition. Is it language? Well, in a way it's like learning a language. I'm still scratching my head on that one.

My point is life is messy and so not everything fits in a little educational box. Some of that stuff doesn't get pigeonholed and sometimes it gets a little forgotten in our busy year, and so it's good to pull the pictures out at the end and remember what we did do, and much of it can fit many categories, and some of it fits none.

The second reason to display our work at the showcase is so that we can share our projects, resources and ideas with our fellow homeschoolers and get ideas from each other. It can be really interesting to see how other families organize and keep track of their work or get to look at some of the curriculum used. It's also fun to see the projects that were worked on and the trips that were taken. It can be very inspiring. 

There were a few tables displaying work by various groups, in addition to the family tables. There was the Moebius Noodles math adventures table as well as tables for some of the Co-ops that organized this year: the Preschool Co-op, a Montessori Style Science Club, a Middle School Project called Healing Oceans Together, and an Elementary Unit Study Co-op. In an entirely different room were several First Lego League teams as well as a Robotics Team that made it all the way to Nationals this year. In short, there was no shortage of things to look at and explore, even though what was displayed only scratched the surface of the things that went on this year. 

Finally, the Showcase is also a chance for people who might be thinking about homeschooling to come and talk to people who do. I consider this part of it a community service. Every year that we do this, I talk to at least two or three families struggling with this hard decision and feeling very overwhelmed and lost. I'm always glad to try to help them in whatever way I can. I remember feeling like that myself when we began this journey, and it feels good to give back some of the help and reassurance that was given to me. There are also teachers who come in for ideas, and extended family members who are very curious about the whole thing and can find out about what homeschooling might mean outside the confines of the family that they know.

I'll post here a few pictures from the showcase this year, though I am sad I didn't get any more pictures from the other room. I can't say this marks the end of our year in schooling. We never really finish. The summer for us is a mixture of trips, summer camps and catching up on bookwork and visiting with friends. Still, I feel like this was one last big event and now we can relax just a little more into the summer groove. Ahhh.