We made it!

Well, we have week 1 under our belts and I still have enough energy to blog about it!

As most of you know, we chose Sonlight as our curriculum this year.  After tons of research, I thought it was the perfect fit for our family and I am feeling very happy with our decision so far!  A quick overview of what I will be teaching.  I started the girls on the pre-k core which includes bible, geography, history and science. I put them both on K language arts. Addison on 2nd grade readers (she is currently reading at 4th/5th grade level, but I wanted this to be fun. She stills likes pictures in her books, after all, she is only 4) and Laney on 1st grade readers. Addison on 1st grade math and Laney on Kindergarten math.

Over the past weekend, my husband and I gathered supplies and got organized for the week.  I planned absolutely nothing for Monday (no errands, no out to lunch, no play dates, nothing) I wanted to see how the day would go and get a feel for this "homeschooling thing."  Let the week begin!

Monday was a great day, but a learning experience as well.  I am sure it is no surprise to anyone, but Addison was totally into it and Laney was only into it when something sounded interesting to her.  We did get everything accomplished I wanted to, but some minor changes needed to be made.  I thought we would start by reading stories on the couch (I was so excited about this.  I had a happy picture in my head of me and kids cuddled under a blanket reading our books) however, that came to a screeching halt when Max kept jumping around on everyone and no one could hear or see the pictures.

Change #1 - Read stories while having meals/snacks

I was starting the Language Arts section for the day and the concepts seemed so simple.  They wanted me to spend an entire week on the letter F.  They both understood the concepts, but the writing part was the problem.  Addison was great writing what I asked, but Laney wasn't much into it.  I tried helping her and she seemed frustrated, so I just let it go, she just doesn't have the motor skills yet.  Later that night, I was thinking to myself, "what in the world am I doing?!?  She is only 3, why would I try and make her write?"

Change #2 - Let Laney join in on writing when she wants to.  We also started writing letters on the chalkboard which she loved, plus Max can join in.  DON'T try and have Laney sit down and write on paper!

As far as the reading and math are concerned, they are both doing great.  They think it is so special when it is their turn to read to baby Ella and they actually can't wait to hear what comprehension questions I have for them.  The only thing I have had to adjust here is allowing Addison to read more.  Since the day we got her readers, they have been up on a book shelf and she has been dying to read them.  I have been attempting to follow the reading schedule, but she still wants a variety.  I think she has already done 3 weeks worth of reading.


Change #3 - Let Addison read at her own pace even if it is faster than the "schedule" we have.


Once I made my minor adjustments, the rest of the school week went great.  The kids were into everything we did.  If they would be playing, I would ask "who is ready for more school" and they would come running.  We did lots of crafts and art projects, sang songs, danced around and just had plain old fun. 

There was 1 major improvement I would like to note.  I usually have the kids play in the basement (that is where we keep the majority of our toys) for a while in the morning.  It was just recently that I let Max go down with the girls and it has always ended in crying.  I could maybe get 10 minutes out of it.  However, during school, I call it "free time" and they will all happily go down and play without any arguments until I call them back up.  I haven't let them play for over 30 minutes by themselves yet, but this is a vast improvement!

All in all, a great week!  I am feeling positive about what we're doing and where we're going.  One of the best parts about it is that we were still able to do all the fun stuff we normally do.  We went to gymnastics, play dates, park, pool, and even ran some errands.

I'm off to prep for week #2!

One month and counting...

August is quickly approaching which means I am one month away from offically being a homeschooler.  Am I nervous, ABSOLUTELY!

I have mentioned this to a few friends and their first response is always "why? what do you have to be nervous about?"  Although I do appreciate the optimism, the nerves are still there.  I think to myself, "What DO I have to be nervous about?" and the answers keep coming and coming. 

1. The amount of energy I am going to need.

This has become a lot more "real" to me since our newest addition has arrived.  I cannot express how much energy and patience it takes to make it through the day.  I mean 14 hours of constant movement (I do make it a point to sit down while I am nursing!)  Up the stairs, down the stairs, on the floor, picking up one kid, then picking up another, making 3 meals and 2 snacks a day and all the dishes that go along with them, "mommy can you get me this", "mommy I need that," loading kids in and out of the car, laundry, paying bills, trying to maintain some sort of clean household and the list can go on and on.

I would like to say that so far I am keeping up.  I have a lot of energy during the day, but come night time, I am ready to sit down.  Right now I am only getting about 2/3 hour stretches of sleep at night, so I am hoping when I start to get a full nights sleep, things will only get better.

2. No time to myself

Currently my older 2 are at a summer program for 2 hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays and that gives me time to run errands, get to dr. appts for me or the little ones and try to get the house organized.  What am I going to do when I don't have those 4 hours a week??  I know we will find a new "normal" but going to the store with 2 instead of 4 is a LOT easier! 

I can always tell when I need to get out of the house because my patience starts to run short and I know I need a break.  Mentally, I know I need to do things for myself, but I truly struggle with that.  I always feel guilty when I have to ask other people for help.  My husband is fabulous when it comes to this and is always saying "GO, take some time for you, you deserve it!"  I just need to learn to actually do it.

3. I need to dedicate time daily for "school"

Although we currently try to get in some study time every day, there are many days that pass and I think to myself where did the time go?

I do have a couple of positive things going for me here.  We are starting at the beginning of August so if we miss a day here or there it's ok.  We can also take time off for vacation and around the holidays and still be able to get all of our work in.  My kids are young enough that if we don't get everything done, we can take as much time as we need. (Definite benefit of homeschooling!)


As I am reading back over this blog, I am overcome with a feeling of confidence.  Although there will be some obstacles and adjustments, I know there isn't anything I can't handle.  I know there will be times when I will question homeschooling, but I will just need to go back to the reasons I decided to homeschool and keep in mind what is important to our family.  If you ever have any words of encouragement, feel free to share them!

**On a side note.  As I sit here typing this blog, my 2 oldest are watching their afternoon video and I just heard my little Laney say to her big sister "Ad, I love you" and she responded "I love you too!"  Nothing melts my heart more and I know these are the moments I don't want to miss!!

I started this blog with the oh my gosh, what am I going to do mentallity and I am ending it with a smile.  It's the little things that keep me going.

Learning by Osmosis??

Laney reading to Addison

I have read lots of blogs in the past on how smaller children learn by osmosis.  At first I thought, ok, sure, maybe.  Now, I think there is something to be said about that.  As we all know, Addison has a love for reading.  She loves to read herself and has always loved being read to.  My little Laney on the other hand doesn't have the same passion.  We have always read to her and worked with her on her letters and sounds, but it wasn't until recently that she started to really impress me.  Driving down the street, she would start reading signs and names of stores.  I knew she could read some words, she did watch Your Baby Can Read videos after all, but I wasn't sure exactly what she knew until we started working with her. 

I decided to start her on Sonlight's kindergarten readers just to see how she would do, boy, was I blown away!  She has done 2/3 of the years curriculum in about a month.  I would like to make a side note that this is only done when SHE wants to.  If there is any attempt to "make" her read when she doesn't want to, nothing gets accomplished.  However, when she WANTS to read, she just flies through these books.  She usually sits on the couch with her daddy, mostly squirming while she reads, but when she has an audience, she will sit right up and read the books to you, no problem. 

Daddy helping Laney while Addison watches

My in-laws were here to help when the new baby was born and Laney asked to do some sight word flash cards.  After every word, she would look back for grandma's approval and then she would keep going strong.  I couldn't believe she sat still for the entire box, plus, she didn't miss one word!!

So, has she learned by osmosis?  I'm not really for sure.  I do know that I now have a 3 year old who will be starting 1st grade readers in the fall without much work on my part.  I will continue to read as much as possible to all of my kids in hopes they continue to enjoy the love of learning.

Our Vegetable Garden

We decided it would be a lot of fun to start a vegetable garden this year and so far we have not been disappointed.  We don't have anything ready to eat yet, but the kids have loved every part of it.  We built a raised garden so they were able to help daddy put that together. They loved digging in the dirt and planting the seeds.  Watering has become a daily chore they are excited about doing. 

The excitement in their eyes when they see their seeds turning into plants is priceless.  They will come running through the door screaming, "Mommy, mommy, come look!!"  I can't wait to see what happens when vegetables actually come in.  Whenever it rains, we talk about how our garden is going to grow bigger because of all the water it is getting.  Our kids, like most, love being outside and exploring new things.  What a fun way for them to learn more about nature and where some of our foods come from than our own vegetable garden.  The best part about it is we will get fresh organic fruits and vegetables!

Ready to garden

Digging dirt

Soil for the tomatoes

Planting the seeds

Max eating the dirt!!

Back to our math curriculum

Since my last post on this subject, I haven't been able to stop thinking about what my next step should be regarding our math curriculum.  I have been able to do a lot of research on line and I have been able to talk to many people about what they use and why.  It is always interesting to me what works for one family absolutely doesn't work for another family.  This all goes back to one of the reasons I decided to homeschool, so I can find the perfect fit for each individual child.  I heard about many companies and typically pros and cons to all of them.  I would like to say this dilemma did come at a good time since our local homeschooling curriculum fair just ended.  I was able to do the research I needed and ask the questions I needed to ask and flip through the different workbooks to see what might be a good fit for our kids.

In my mind I had 2 pretty clear options.  Stick with Horizons and see if things get better or switch to a curriculum that uses a mastery approach.  I, of course, was leaning towards switching since my 4 year old was already talking about the repetition involved with Horizon Math,  I would almost call it "busy work."  Singapore was always the first name that came up when talking about a mastery approach so that is what I looked into.  It is a completely different style, but one I think my kids will enjoy.  The biggest con I heard was that if you want to switch back later on, it can be a hard switch for the kids to understand a different learning style.  I guess I will just have to see if that is ever an issue for our family.

We are about a week away from finishing the first of two Kindergarten workbooks from Horizon, so I wasn't exactly sure where to start looking for my oldest.  Do I start Kindergarten all over again with Singapore or do I start her halfway through and hope the material is similar?  I looked the Kindergarten A and B textbooks and I knew Addison would have no problems.  I then looked at the 1A book and felt pretty good about it.  It was some stuff I thought she knew, plus others that she could learn.  That is what we are looking for, something to learn, right?  However, I was having a struggle putting my 4 year old into 1st grade math.  I mentioned it to another homeschooling mom and she was like, "why not?" Simple sentence, but it sure did make me feel better!

Singapore does have a placement test to judge where you should start your child, so I decided to have Addison take it just to double check myself.  As we sat down, in my mind, I thought I knew what she could and probably couldn't do, boy was I wrong.  I can't believe how well she did on the test.  There were word problems (which she had never done before) that she just sailed through.  There were of course some things she didn't know, but overall, she did way better than I expected.  Since she did so well, I knew I was making the right decision  with purchasing Singapore's first grade math curriculum!

A little side story...

The girls were having a snack and we were talking about Laney getting ready to turn 3.  All of a sudden, Addison looks at Laney with such excitement and says "Laney, when you turn 3, you can start doing math lessons like me!!"  They both started screaming and giggling with excitement.  I had already decided Laney was ready for Singapore's Kindergarten math, but I was going to wait until the fall.  However, after I saw the expression on her face when she got her very own math workbook, we will be starting sooner than later!

2012 Homeschooling Conference and Curriculm Fair

It was just about a year ago when I officially decided I was going to homeschool our kids.  I was totally bummed when I found out I had just missed the 2011 Homeschooling Conference and Curriculum Fair, but I must tell you that someone was looking out for me.  Had I gone last year, I would have been totally overwhelmed without a clue as to what I should be doing.  Who knows, it could have been enough to make me start doubting my decision. 

I am truly thankful that I have had a year to research as much as I possibly could.  I have been able to read a lot of books and blogs, come to an understanding of the different teaching approaches and the curriculum that goes with them, plus I have met a lot of homeschooling families who have been able to answer the massive amount of questions a new homeschooler may have. 

Going into the conference, I was feeling pretty good.  I had basic knowledge of what I needed to know, but I also knew the people I wanted to talk with and the questions I wanted to ask.  Luckily, I was able to flip through different books that I had been interested in and be able to make a more informed decision on what I should be purchasing for the fall.

I was also able to go to a couple of workshops and listen to what those speakers had to teach me.  One was actually called How to Homeschool.  I thought this would be a perfect place to start.  Sitting through that class made me feel pretty good about where I am at.  I actually had some knowledge of everything they were talking about.  It is always great to hear other peoples personal stories and how they want their days to go and how they actually go!

Leaving the conference I felt energized (my goal) and very excited for the upcoming school year.  If new baby wasn't so close to being here, I would start the kids up now.  However, I am smart enough to know things are going to get a little more crazy around here before we can get back on a "schedule" of any kind.

Math Curriculum

Well, I am not sure where I really want to start with my blog, but I know I want to have a record of what is going on at this point in our journey.

A couple of months ago I started my oldest on Horizons Kindergarten Math and she absolutely loves it!  Almost every afternoon she asks if she can work on her math lessons.  After the initial introduction, I have never asked her, she is always the one wanting to do them.  We typically sit down and she does 2 or 3 lessons at a time.  She is flying through the first workbook and is almost ready for the second.  As I looked through the second workbook and noticed she could probably do every lesson today without a problem, I started to think about my next move.  Do I really want my 4 year old doing 1st grade math in the fall and at the rate she is going 2nd grade math before she is 5??

I started thinking about Horizons Curriculum and so far, I have found the lessons to be very repetitive, but I continued to just go with it until one day Addison said "this again?"  that is when I knew I needed to look into some other options.  As I started researching I found there are 2 different approaches, spiral and mastery.  Horizons is, of course, spiral meaning it gradually teaches you something by doing it again and again.  You learn new things along the way, but the old stuff is always brought back into the lessons.  The other option is mastery.  Basically they teach you a skill and you don't move on until you have mastered it. 

I am thinking she needs to be doing a mastery curriculum since she is catching on so quickly.  Granted you can ask her what 13+6 is and she won't know the answer without thinking about it, but she knows how to get to the answer and that is the most important part.  My personal favorite is when you give her a problem and she taps her pencil against her head like she is thinking, but she is actually counting the numbers.

Our homeschooling conference is coming up next week so I am super excited to be able to talk to a couple of different companies about their math curriculum and which direction I should take my daughter.  I will keep you posted.