Halfway In
This week we mark the halfway point of our school year. I’ve had so many thought I want to get down here- mostly to keep people informed, but also for me- so I can look back and see how this period of adjusting has gone for us. We’ve definitely relaxed into homeschooling. It is so enjoyable for all of us, and thanks to our new language arts curriculum for Abigail, there isn’t a part of the day that we dread getting to.
Yesterday we took the rare opportunity to spend time with another homeschooling family. The kids all had a great time together, and it was so nice to sit and visit with another mom who is making the exact same journey I am- and who is just as in love with our curriculum choice.
Speaking of curriculum. I know people check in here from time to time who are contemplating making a switch for themselves in the future- or maybe have really little ones who are thinking for the future too. So I wanted to share some thoughts about curriculum. Mainly, that there is no one program that works for everyone. We have chosen to do a lot of our schooling with Sonlight because we love books- we love the history and geography focus, told to us through fiction and biographies. But this works for our kids- there are so many other programs out there, that the best thing to do is simply start looking. If you are thinking about homeschooling- check out my sidebar. I have a list of curriculum providers that I have seriously considered for our journey. They all have strengths and weaknesses- but they all also have catalogs (at least mostly). Go ahead- look at their websites, request a free catalog and really take some time to check out all the options.
When I chose Sonlight, it came as a shock to me. I had ordered scads of catalogs, and was going back and forth between Winter’s Promise and Christian Liberty Press for much of our schooling. I ordered the Sonlight catalog because I knew it was literature based, and I was thinking I would maybe order a few books from them. It was love at first site- and what I thought was my last choice became my only choice. It works well for us, and we’re going to continue with it for now. Next year the kids will be split up and Abigail will move ahead to the second half of American History while Zander will drop back and start his own Sonlight journey with an introduction to the world around him.
Here in Wisconsin, we are required to provide 875 hours of instruction which must include math, language arts, reading, science, health, and social studies. Everything else is gravy, and within these veins, you can do what you like- but it must be progressive. For our social studies we do history and geography mainly right now. Our reading ties into our history as well through historical fiction and biographies of famous Americans. Our science right now is Astronomy, but in a few weeks we’ll be doing a unit on food and nutrition- which will also qualify to meet our health requirement. Math is individual to meet each child’s needs, and language arts as well. Companies who provide math curriculum also provide placement tests, so you can order material that fits right at your child’s ability.
So here we are, this week is the halfway mark and every day it seems to get better. Last week we finished reading Johnny Tremain for our read-aloud and it was such a bittersweet victory for us. It was a really long book- we’d even taken a significant break from it for Christmas. But once we finished it, we were sad to say goodbye to Johnny. It gave us such an incredible view of how the Revolutionary War started- and we celebrated our victory by cuddling on the couch for the movie version. This morning, as I read the second chapter of our new read-aloud, Toliver’s Secret, Zander told me that this book wasn’t near as exciting as Johnny Tremain so far. Abigail chose that moment to also confide in me that even though there were days where it seemed like I read aloud for a whole hour, she wanted me to keep going with Johnny Tremain, she loved it so. Last week while we were out with friends Zander started running around like he was riding a horse, exclaiming that he was Johnny Tremain. Abigail followed suit, only she was being Paul Revere, and they started calling out that “The British Are Coming” and all I could do was just grin and watch them act out history as it really happened.
My kids have learned how to learn… I can’t express that enough or even say it quite right. By giving them each individual attention, catering to their weaknesses and challenging their strengths they’ve come so far. They’re like flowers in full blossom. If you had told me to expect this… I probably would have laughed at you. And now… now I just cannot believe that I was so against this idea in the first place. The questions and concerns that people have about socialization are just plain silly to me now. I have watched in the last few weeks as my son, while we sit at dance class waiting for Abigail for hours at a time, now takes the initiative and organizes all the other “siblings of dancers” into group activities of hide and seek- or simply playing with some toys. I watch him walk around, and when he sees another child with a DS, he sits next to them and asks if they’d like to play with him. My shy almost six-year old is organizing groups of kids from age 2-10 to play together…
Ah, I’m rambling. It’s been a fantastic couple of weeks here at the schoolhouse, and I just wanted to share a little bit. I’m going to try and do better at updating here. Now I have to go add some curriculum sites to my sidebar.