Homeschooling Update

How can it possibly be the second week in April already?  This school year has completely flown by for me!  I’m not sure if my daughter would say the same thing, but it is incredible how quickly the days pass.  OK, that is not something new in my life.  However, looking back on all that we have done this year, it seems crazy.

Emma has made great progress in all of the areas we have been working on this year.  She is able to sound out most of the words in her beginning readers.  It is really exciting to watch her make sense of a word and start to understand the story.  I still feel that those beginning books should not have pictures.  My daughter (and I’m sure most children) likes to look at the picture and proceeds to make up an entire story about said picture – instead of “Sid has a bat.”

She is through with the first book in her math curriculum.  She actually completed it several weeks ago, and probably would have completed it sooner if her writing had been at the same level as her math ability.

That has been one struggle, making sure that she can do all the writing involved with her curriculum.  She really started picking up on her writing of letters and numbers after Christmas.  And since then we have made up a lot of time from the fall, when she wasn’t as interested or as able in the writing.

We will continue to school through the summer.  But, we will be concentrating more on science studying seasons and planting schedules, watching seeds grow into plants and learning how to identify weeds/vegetables/flowers, as well as good bugs/bad bugs.

I have really enjoyed this year of learning with my kids, and am happy to be making the progress that we have.  I like to know I can take my time when things aren’t clicking, or look into different ideas to show the same concept until she understands it.  If she is having difficulty or getting frustrated, we can take a break.  There is nothing that we have to “get to” next.

We are following our own schedule with the read-alouds.  It works better for us to read chapters at a time, instead of a few pages each day.  I have also added in other chapter books that Emma has requested.  The Narnia series seems to be a favorite right now – we are on the third book in the series.

It is amazing to me to see what kids are supposed to learn each year these days.  Maybe I learned the same things growing up.  But, I don’t remember that long ago 🙂  My niece is learning long division right now, long division!  She is 8!  Maybe that is normal though, and I just don’t want any of the littles in my life to get older 🙂

How has your school year gone?  Are your kids enjoying school – public, private, or homeschool?  Are they accomplishing things that you never dreamed of at their age?  


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