Guess who can read?

Little Bird! My not so little girl (4 next week!) read her first short story- a HOP book about a fat cat.
Yay, Little Bird! I'm so proud of her and it's amazing to see her grow and learn.

Little Bird

I'm planning Little Bird's year out right now. She turns 4 in about a week! When Sweet Pea was 4 she had a lot of workbooks. I'm not planning to do the same thing with Little Bird.

She is currently working through the Explode the Code primer A. We also have B and C for her, and when she's done with those I think we're done with the series. She's slowly working through Hooked on Phonics K and the Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading. I'd like her to be fluently reading CVC words by Christmas.

She's in the early lessons of Saxon Math K. We'll work through that this year and hopefully finish by spring.

Once I find the box ;) I'm starting Cursive First with her. She knows all her ABCs and is starting to write letters and I want her to have proper form.

She listens in on big sis's science and history.

She's doing really well in French.

Bible and Catechism- this year is the New Testament and continued memorization.

We'll also read through the Year O books from Ambleside as found here.

Cost of new curricula for the year? $0. :)

I call that a Pre-K year well planned!

Differences

Ah, oh, how they are wide!

Reading about Charlotte Mason and reading Charlotte Mason's actual work- wow. It's really amazing and quite different.

I like Ambleside and Tanglewood and Simply Charlotte Mason, but they just don't have the same verve or rigor.

I'm intimidated by what she had her students do!

Wow.

In related news- next year is still heavily being planned and obsessed over. Decisions, decisions!

Paradigm shift

Of a minor sort. We may be switching from neoclassical education (Well Trained Mine) to a more Charlotte Mason approach for now. Or a more LCC approach.

All I know is I feel switchy. Kind like twitchy, only with curricula hopping involved.

When are you going to stop doing that?

First- we are semi-settled in our new home. By semi-settled, I mean that the beds are set up, the kitchen is usable, and we have a place to sit to eat. Boxes abound, still. I FOUND the boxes of homeschooling stuff, but have not yet cracked them. It's a work in progress that is going to take some time. And patience. A lot of patience.

Over the last few years I've been asked by family, friends, acquaintances- anyone who really hears we're homeschooling- about how long we're going to do that. Do we have an end in sight?

At first people thought we'd just homescool preschool. Weird, but not everyone goes to preschool, so Sweet Pea would probably turn out OK and not too bizarre or socially maladjusted. Then we did Kindergarten. This seemed much less alright with people- Kindy is a real grade and skipping it meant that Sweet Pea would... what? Not know how to line up? To raise her hand to go to the bathroom?

I'm not sure exactly what she was missing out on since she learned to read fluently at 4 and do basic arithmetic. But she was missing out. And lots of people kindly took the opportunity to inform us and her of this.

Now we're coming to the close of 1st grade and Sweet Pea is now 7. 7! She's quite the woman of the world at 7, right?

We're going to come to our senses and send her to school any minute so she can do all the stuff she's not doing, right?

Wrong.

I have no clear or immediate plans of sending Sweet Pea or Little Bird to school. They are happy and thriving and learning and engaged and loved and safe at home- if it ain't broke, I'm not fixing it.

Opportunities do change and every moment I evaluate and reevaluate where we are and what we are doing and why. And if it's working.

And it is!

Sweet Pea is starting piano (and organ) lessons soon. Little Bird is going to take a dance class. They have little friends they see and places they go- and the world keeps turning.

Fin.

I could never do it

After a move you meet a lot of new people. I LOVE doing that! I'm a people person and I thrive on new faces and relationships.

Everyone has been so kind and supportive of our wacky homeschooling ways. I'm really glad!

One thing I've heard over the last few years is from people is that they could never homeschool and I'd like to take this opportunity to say that I used to be that way. I think I'm an unlikely homeschool and it's not something I thought I'd do before I was doing it.

And yet we love it (most days, anyway). It's really become enmeshed in the fabric of our family life and now I can't imagine NOT being a homeschooler.

I think that there is a lot of support out there for new homeschoolers, if you get tapped into the community. That's vital, because without it it's daunting and tough- and something many of us wouldn't be able to do.

That would be my biggest piece of advice to someone considering homeschooling- look for support. You probably CAN do it- if you want/need to. :)