For my memory, I want to jot down some things about homeschooling:
We are really enjoying it, and so far it hasn't been too much to handle. If you ask Kendall, her initial response is a proud, "I do homeschool" and I am thankful for that. If you get into conversation with her, she will probably tell you things she misses about public school (her Pre-K experience, things they might doing, her friends from Pre-K) but honestly I don't think it's because Kendall feels like she's missing out. She is a social child and would spend 24/7 with people other than her family if we let her. She is also a typical human who battles contentment (already!) and we are trying to use this as an opportunity to teach her how to combat that. We try really hard to focus on what she gets to do rather than what she does not and help her count her blessings! Honestly, though, we see the contentment thing play out in so many other areas of her little life...homeschool is just one of them. Sometimes, when she complains about not "going" to school I quickly remind her of all the times at the end of the year last year where she begged to stay home! The grass is not greener on the other side...it's greener where you water it, right?!
I think I said this in another post, but we went with a Kindergarten curriculum for her and while I am glad we did that, we have decided to push her through it. Much of it (especially the phonics) is review for her and she picks up the new concepts SO quickly. Instead of working just one day of the work as it is written, we are pressing on and covering more ground. Basically what it means is that we will finish Kindergarten with days left in the school year, so we will go ahead and begin the 1st grade work. I'm not sure how much of a break we will take when Barrett comes, but I feel pretty confident we will finish the Kindergarten curriculum by end of winter or early spring. Doing this has made for a little more planning on the front end, but the teacher in me secretly likes writing the lesson plans and catering to her needs.
We really love our little co-op group and have had some fun events over the last few weeks. We participated in a chemistry night at OBU where Kendall learned about polymers and made slime. That same week, she attended an art lab at HSU where they made chalk drawings of trees and a paper mosaic. We also attended a physics day at HSU this week and participated in a few experiments as well as visited the planetarium. (That was quite an experience because the movie was WAY over her head AND Arden just happened to be with us!) We are so blessed to live near two colleges that provide these kinds of opportunities for the community!
We are really enjoying it, and so far it hasn't been too much to handle. If you ask Kendall, her initial response is a proud, "I do homeschool" and I am thankful for that. If you get into conversation with her, she will probably tell you things she misses about public school (her Pre-K experience, things they might doing, her friends from Pre-K) but honestly I don't think it's because Kendall feels like she's missing out. She is a social child and would spend 24/7 with people other than her family if we let her. She is also a typical human who battles contentment (already!) and we are trying to use this as an opportunity to teach her how to combat that. We try really hard to focus on what she gets to do rather than what she does not and help her count her blessings! Honestly, though, we see the contentment thing play out in so many other areas of her little life...homeschool is just one of them. Sometimes, when she complains about not "going" to school I quickly remind her of all the times at the end of the year last year where she begged to stay home! The grass is not greener on the other side...it's greener where you water it, right?!
I think I said this in another post, but we went with a Kindergarten curriculum for her and while I am glad we did that, we have decided to push her through it. Much of it (especially the phonics) is review for her and she picks up the new concepts SO quickly. Instead of working just one day of the work as it is written, we are pressing on and covering more ground. Basically what it means is that we will finish Kindergarten with days left in the school year, so we will go ahead and begin the 1st grade work. I'm not sure how much of a break we will take when Barrett comes, but I feel pretty confident we will finish the Kindergarten curriculum by end of winter or early spring. Doing this has made for a little more planning on the front end, but the teacher in me secretly likes writing the lesson plans and catering to her needs.
We really love our little co-op group and have had some fun events over the last few weeks. We participated in a chemistry night at OBU where Kendall learned about polymers and made slime. That same week, she attended an art lab at HSU where they made chalk drawings of trees and a paper mosaic. We also attended a physics day at HSU this week and participated in a few experiments as well as visited the planetarium. (That was quite an experience because the movie was WAY over her head AND Arden just happened to be with us!) We are so blessed to live near two colleges that provide these kinds of opportunities for the community!
Another fun thing about homeschool is how much Arden is picking up just by playing around Kendall as she works. Part of Kendall's curriculum is recitation and Arden can do/say many of the things Kendall has to recite. For example, Arden can say most of the Pledge of Allegiance just because she's heard Kendall say it so many times, not because we've been teaching it to her! Part of Kendall's recitation curriculum is an arts recitation where Kendall is introduced to famous paintings and learns the names of paintings/about the artist. Arden LOVES arts recitation and can tell you what all the paintings are, too! No kidding, Arden can identify almost all the paintings by sight and it's not because I've sat and worked with her--she just wants to do and learn what her big sister is learning!
We typically get started around 9 or so in the morning (sometimes earlier, sometimes later) and finish by lunch with the majority of the work and that includes about a 30 minute break. While Arden is resting, Kendall rests for about 30 minutes, then reads books for about an hour. At least one day a week, I try to do a reading comprehension check of what she's reading independently. While we are committed to our routine, and try to keep it going, we really love the flexibility of our schedule.
We really are loving it and while this is not necessarily the direction I would have chosen, I am thankful for this path for us. We are all learning so much!
We really are loving it and while this is not necessarily the direction I would have chosen, I am thankful for this path for us. We are all learning so much!
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