Last week Friday we had an ice cream party around here to celebrate a big accomplishment...we finished Jonah's kindergarten curriculum! We started in July because I didn't know how much time we would take off after Elise was born, but as it turned out we didn't take off much time at all and now we are done!
So far homeschooling has been a good experience for us. Sure there were many times that Jonah lacked concentration or a good attitude so I would send him outside to run a few laps and then come back in and get back to it. (Um, truth be told there were a few days in there were I lacked concentration or a good attitude too!) We started doing school in the morning, but then when Reuben dropped his morning nap we switched to the afternoon. I never liked the math with our program so we did our own. We have learned a few tricks as we have gone along.
My goals for the year were simple: teach Jonah his letter sounds, numbers and not completely destroy Jonah's love for learning. I am happy to say that I exceeded my goals as Jonah is reading and writing simple words, adding simple math problems and as much as I hate to say it he spouts off animals facts like a true home school nerd. (Some day he will realize that besides his mother no one else wants to hear him talk about different predators and prey!) He and I both have liked this special time that we have where I can focus just on him for a few moments.
I asked Jonah what he liked best about this year. His highlights surprised me because he remembered a lot. A creation collage he made, Every single field trip we took-apple orchard, pumpkin farm, Living History Farms, Insect Zoo, the zoo and children's museum, Botanical Center, Red Rock Wildlife display, and a million nature walks. The dinosaur and National Geographic clips we watched online, the volcano we made, the week on our 5 senses.
When home schooling in our state parents are required to either turn in test results, a portfolio or meet a few times with a supervising teacher. We used a supervising teacher this year. Our supervisor was also one of Jonah's HSAP class teachers. It was nice to have someone who knew Jonah and able to see his growth over the year. I was sharing with her how I noticed the difference of using black and white workbooks over colored workbooks when working with Jonah. (Jonah has a hard time staying focused without color!) It was good to hear her say how neat it was that we were homeschooling him now as all his worksheet would be black and white if he were enrolled in a traditional classroom setting.
The big question people have asked is are we going to home school Jonah again next year? We decided that yes we would give it another go! Why? Because I don't look crazy enough with just the three when I go to the store! :) We have seen significant growth in a few areas that were a concern for us last year, both academically and otherwise. He was behind because of his speech issues, and the fact that he is a boy with a May birthday. There were some character qualities that we really wanted work on with him. Homeschooling has allowed us to help Jonah without him knowing he was behind and work on getting him caught up. We are also seeing him become more of a leader instead of a follower. While there are days that it would be nice to tuck the younger three in bed for naps and have the afternoon to myself, this experience has been really rewarding. As a mom so much of what I do is either so immediate that it is undone by the end of the day or so long term that I feel I won't see my goals met until they are adults. Homeschooling Jonah has been a blessing to me as well.
What now? Well, we are taking a few weeks off. I am cleaning out closets and getting things checked off my list. Woohoo! I think that we will spend the summer doing some of our own unit studies, reading and maybe checking out a curriculum that one of the libraries offer. I am going to experiment with trying to involve Audrey (and maybe even Reuben) a little bit more. We still need some structure to our day or we go crazy plus I don't want to loose all that we have learned by taking 4 months off!
So far homeschooling has been a good experience for us. Sure there were many times that Jonah lacked concentration or a good attitude so I would send him outside to run a few laps and then come back in and get back to it. (Um, truth be told there were a few days in there were I lacked concentration or a good attitude too!) We started doing school in the morning, but then when Reuben dropped his morning nap we switched to the afternoon. I never liked the math with our program so we did our own. We have learned a few tricks as we have gone along.
My goals for the year were simple: teach Jonah his letter sounds, numbers and not completely destroy Jonah's love for learning. I am happy to say that I exceeded my goals as Jonah is reading and writing simple words, adding simple math problems and as much as I hate to say it he spouts off animals facts like a true home school nerd. (Some day he will realize that besides his mother no one else wants to hear him talk about different predators and prey!) He and I both have liked this special time that we have where I can focus just on him for a few moments.
I asked Jonah what he liked best about this year. His highlights surprised me because he remembered a lot. A creation collage he made, Every single field trip we took-apple orchard, pumpkin farm, Living History Farms, Insect Zoo, the zoo and children's museum, Botanical Center, Red Rock Wildlife display, and a million nature walks. The dinosaur and National Geographic clips we watched online, the volcano we made, the week on our 5 senses.
When home schooling in our state parents are required to either turn in test results, a portfolio or meet a few times with a supervising teacher. We used a supervising teacher this year. Our supervisor was also one of Jonah's HSAP class teachers. It was nice to have someone who knew Jonah and able to see his growth over the year. I was sharing with her how I noticed the difference of using black and white workbooks over colored workbooks when working with Jonah. (Jonah has a hard time staying focused without color!) It was good to hear her say how neat it was that we were homeschooling him now as all his worksheet would be black and white if he were enrolled in a traditional classroom setting.
The big question people have asked is are we going to home school Jonah again next year? We decided that yes we would give it another go! Why? Because I don't look crazy enough with just the three when I go to the store! :) We have seen significant growth in a few areas that were a concern for us last year, both academically and otherwise. He was behind because of his speech issues, and the fact that he is a boy with a May birthday. There were some character qualities that we really wanted work on with him. Homeschooling has allowed us to help Jonah without him knowing he was behind and work on getting him caught up. We are also seeing him become more of a leader instead of a follower. While there are days that it would be nice to tuck the younger three in bed for naps and have the afternoon to myself, this experience has been really rewarding. As a mom so much of what I do is either so immediate that it is undone by the end of the day or so long term that I feel I won't see my goals met until they are adults. Homeschooling Jonah has been a blessing to me as well.
What now? Well, we are taking a few weeks off. I am cleaning out closets and getting things checked off my list. Woohoo! I think that we will spend the summer doing some of our own unit studies, reading and maybe checking out a curriculum that one of the libraries offer. I am going to experiment with trying to involve Audrey (and maybe even Reuben) a little bit more. We still need some structure to our day or we go crazy plus I don't want to loose all that we have learned by taking 4 months off!
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