You all thought I had disappeared, right?
It's a new school year and the momentum is gaining for all things. I thought I should check in and give a wrap-up of last year and tell you about some new things we are doing. Plus, I think I might participate in the
"Not" Back-to-School Blog Hop. You can't really start a blog hop after months and months of silence.
Last year I loved looking at all the wonderful blogs that linked to the "Not" Back-to-School Blog Hop. It is four weeks of curriculum posts, school room pictures, student photos, and day-in-the-life posts. I still don't feel too legit, given that my oldest is only 4, but when I stop thinking about her age and think about the level of work she is doing I totally have a right to participate. Plus, this will give family and friends an idea of what we are doing over here.
I guess first, I should give an overview of last year. Wow, did I learn a lot (and Emily, too!) A couple things that stick out...
1. Do not plan the same thing for the entire year. Your child will outgrow it. (More on this later.)
2. A child's learning is not a steady uphill climb. This was such a crazy concept for me. I guess I always assumed that you keep trucking along learning things. Emily hit multiple walls and then would zoom way ahead faster than I knew it.
2. I need to control my frustration. Things got a little rough in the beginning. My only buy at last year's homeschooling convention was a book --
Homeschooling with a Meek and Quiet Spirit by Teri Maxwell. I read it before school started and after only the first couple of weeks, I needed to read it again. My biggest problem was that Emily was absorbing things rapidly, then she hit her first wall. I grew frustrated. Once I revisited some of the topics in the book, I shelved some things, and prayed for the Lord to change my spirit. It was only a matter of weeks before Emily was asking for things that previously had brought tears (I know -- bad mom!) Things had clicked somewhere and she was ready to advance. This is when I came to the above mentioned point. Once I understood that, road blocks weren't that big of a deal.
Although Emily LOVED last year, I often feel bad for what she went through in the beginning. My husband's family refers to it as the lead buffalo theory. It is always the first child that comes along and gets all the arrows. The other children follow along, unscathed by first-round parenting mistakes. I am glad we started when we did, though. I have learned the necessary lessons, and it all happened before I added a third little
terror angel to the mix.
So, how did the rest of the year go?
Last summer I planned out the whole fall. We were going to do the first part of Confessions of a Homeschooler
Letter of the Week curriculum. Letters A-N were organized, printed, assigned days and time slots. We would learn letter sounds, proper letter formation, and solidify numbers 1-10. Along with this went a lot of fun crafts that were planned and TONS of read-alouds.
Well, we got into the first part of November and Emily claimed that she was bored. She obviously knew her numbers and so the activities were not exciting anymore. I don't know why I thought that she could do the exact same activity every week only with a new graphic on the page. (Refer to point 1 of lessons learned.) I also had started a reading program with her. She amazed me at how quick she picked this up. All of the sudden, simple letter activities were no match to reading real books. How childish, she thought. I had to revamp a lot of things. Thank goodness I only planned for one semester.
We did a lot of light school the rest of the year, flying by the seam of our pants. We pretty much focused on reading, proper letter formation, and child-led art projects. This was part in response to a new little bundle that came our way and partly due our house flooding two weeks later. Our house was turned upside down for over two months. It was a struggle to just stay sane during this time.
I really just focused more on reading than everything else. Obviously, reading is a foundational skill to just about everything else in life. I knew Emily had a long attention span, loved looking at books and read-alouds, and was outgrowing nap times. We will always have a quiet time in this house, so I figured that if she knew how to read, it would keep her busy for more than 5 minutes. She has blown us out of the water. She now has her nose in a book all day and Daniel and I are constantly amazed at what she is reading. I have started checking out more difficult picture books in hopes that I can regain some read-aloud time with her. It is always a fight, though, because she wants to read everything herself. The other day she sounded out properly, "An ostentation of ostriches." She literally picks up anything and reads it. The program I used was a simple book --
Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. I had heard a lot of people had success with introducing it to younger children, then a military friend who is a teaching specialist mentioned it to me (she uses it as remediation with students, I believe). I went out and bought it that day and we haven't looked back. The book is now retired on a shelf waiting for Olivia. I highly recommend it for anyone who is looking to teach reading to their child and I cannot wait to use it again!
Speaking of school... Today was Daniel's first day of his MBA program. Crazy! This week is immersion and he has class every day until 6pm, and then they work on group projects every evening. It is 11:10pm and he still is not home. I am so eager to hear how the day went! The Lord has been doing some pretty incredible things in our family!
Alright, more to come later. I can't wait to tell everyone about the exciting school year that is approaching. And because I can't leave without some pictures, and I don't think James has even made an appearance on here, yet, I want to introduce you all to my newest obsession...
