Year One in Review

Two weeks ago we began our second year of homeschooling here in the great state of Missouri.  Let me say how much I wish I would have begun my homeschool blogging adventure then, so that I could look back now and see the progress we have made!  I tried to make notes in a notebook daily for the first week or so of things that worked well that day, struggles we encountered, or ideas to come back to in the future.  Maybe I will post some of those here sometime and then reflect on how things have changed/progressed since then.

I guess I will start by talking about our first year homeschooling and trying to get you up to speed on where we are now.  Last year I was working full-time up until mid-September at a preschool teaching 3 and 4 year olds.  Homeschooling was an idea that we had toyed with when living in Omaha, and when we moved to Missouri I figured we would go the public school route because the schools were smaller, class sizes were smaller, etc.  Our oldest, let's call her Em, attended summer school in our small town, and although I knew how she likes to exaggerate (something I remind the hubby that she got from him!), some of the things she was telling me that happened and were being said, well, let's just say it left an unsavory taste in our mouths.  As the days continued on after the conclusion of summer school, the more we thought about it, the less we were sure of sending our innocent, impressionable, six year old to a place where we couldn't monitor what she was learning and hearing, both in and outside of class.  Here is where some people might remark that "Kids are going to hear and learn things you don't want them to, whether or not you keep them home," and while yes, that is partially true, it's also true that I want to keep her innocent as long as possible.  I don't want her to hear about the terrible things going on in our world, or the choices that people are trying to make "normal" and such.  Along with the things I didn't want her to hear about, there were things that wouldn't be taught in school that I DID want her to learn, namely about our Lord and God.

We didn't make the decision to homeschool until probably the beginning of August, so we were a little late starting (October 3rd was our first official day). However, that is the beauty of homeschooling!  We started in October with my oldest starting Kindergarten, took two weeks off for Christmas, a few days in the spring around Easter, and a sick day here and there, and we still managed to finish our year on the same day as the public schools in the area.  Em had been in preschool/Kindergarten Prep for two years and was more than ready to start Kindergarten.  For our first year we used Our Lady of Victory for our curriculum.  In the beginning quite a lot of what she was learning was simply review of what she had previously learned (thanks to a wonderful preschool!)  As we progressed through the school year we became aware of things that were and were not working for us within that curriculum.  For example, the math consisted mainly of math fact drills, with little instruction on how to go about implementing that part of the curriculum.  About half-way through our year I began to compile a binder of math materials that I wanted to work with her on to supplement what I felt to be a lacking math curriculum.  The reading and phonics curriculum was really a wonderful one using Spectrum Phonics as a good introduction to phonics, in addition to Little Angel Readers to begin learning to read.  In fact, I am preparing to go back to the Little Angel Reader series in a week or so as the Little Stories for Little Folks is just not working for us.  There were other parts that we liked about OLVS and some that we did not, and in the end I made the decision to make a change for first grade.

In our first year homeschooling Em began to learn to read, improved her handwriting, and grew by leaps and bounds!  I worked more on my patience, understanding, encouragement, and understanding that there is more than one right way to do many things!  I hope to grow more in my patience this year, as well as leading by example because I became almost painfully aware of how much my girls watch and imitate what I do.  I want to make sure I'm giving them a good role model to imitate!

Welcome!

I have been an on-again-off-again blogger for several years now.  It started as my diaries did M.A.N.Y. years ago, when I needed somewhere to just write. Then, after having children it evolved into a blog about how our daughters were growing and changing, as well as any big new changes in our lives.  However, I had found myself to have less and less interest in that blog because, let's face it, life got busy and my "free time" in the evenings became more precious than ever.  A little over a year ago, however, my hubby and I made when I believe to be a life-altering decision...that to homeschool our daughters.  Now, I find myself being drawn to the idea of blogging again, but not just the occasional posting that I had been making, but rather a few times a month.  This time I plan to focus on our life as homeschoolers, which could range from struggles that we are having, curriculum reviews, fun activities that we have done, and any other information that I feel could be useful to myself, or perhaps others, in the future.  So, if you've managed to make it to the end of this awkward introduction I want to thank you  :)  Welcome to what I hope will be a helpful, fun, and enlightening new perspective into our lives!