So we have been homeschooling my Kindergartener for about 6 months now and things are going really, really well. I want to talk about our routine really quickly. First thing in the morning, we eat breakfast while we have some morning “table time”. This is a tradition in homeschools the world over where almost anything can happen, as long as it’s done together as a family. it can range from bible devotions, to history readings, to poetry memorizations. In our house, I have so many wiggly littles, that something that planned is somewhat unachievable, so we just talk about our plans for the day. Then I take some time to cuddle and play with my littles before my Kindergartener and I break off for one on one time.

The Littles play much better if we do this. We start with Reading (20 min). Then move on to Math (20 min). Then some cursive practice (10 min) and a page in our social studies notebook (20 min). All of this takes less than an hour and a half. He and his brothers have the rest of the day to play, we go on field trips, or hikes, or just run errands. I am loving all this time with my children!! If the littles are having a hard time respecting our one on one time, I just wait for nap time, and do the things requiring more quiet concentration (read here…math).

Now for progress with our curriculum choices. He totally blew through level 1 All About Reading before August even got started!

Then in November, we finished level 2!! WOW! I can’t believe how he’s flown through it! And I was worried about reading! These levels were supposed to last the whole year! Now I’ve bought 3 in one year!! Just in case anyone out there thinks I’m some amazing reading teacher, let me just stop you right there. This is all him! This kid is motivated to read!! He’s a bookworm and wants to devour every book he encounters. The fact that he can’t read everything yet, frustrates him and motivates him to move quickly through these books.

Now he’s just a few lessons away from being through Level A of Right Start Math! We are on track to finish both before Christmas break. Math doesn’t come as easily for him, but Right Start is so gentle and cyclic that I know we can keep working through the material, even if he hasn’t completely mastered it and he will get exposure to it again soon. Or we can just pause lessons for a few days and play some of the games to cement a concept. I love it! We are about halfway through our social studies notebook, and have done 2/3 of our cursive letters.

I continue to be impressed by the potential that has already been reached by homeschooling, since he is essentially in 1st grade now at the halfway point of his Kindergarten year. For other children in homeschool, it’s the opposite story, and that is just dandy too! Kids should be allowed to go at their own pace and journey. It’s a marathon, not a sprint!

For those of you living under a rock in Mount Airy, we’ve been hit recently by a tornado, and while everyone in town has been mourning the closing of the TJMax due to roof damage and flooding, we’ve been over here dealing with our own tiny crisis. On a farm with livestock, there’s not much worse than having a fence come down. And that’s exactly what happened during the high winds from the tornado. While we were not hit directly by the cyclone, we had some serious fence damage and were without power for a while.

This massive tree came down across an important stretch of fence, completely crushing it. It’s an extremely long stretch of fence, meaning that the entire stretch is affected by this damage. In the short term, we worried about animals that may have escaped during the time between it happening and when we secured the area, but luckily we did not have any daring souls try it!

Dan and I did a quick temporary fence around the area to keep animals safe overnight and then spent the rest of the evening “camping” in the living room without any power!

Then in the morning we got to work fixing it! The plan was to temporarily nail off the sections around the damage, while they cut up the tree and then splice in a new section of fence, without letting the pressure off of the stretch. Luckily we have awesome neighbors that offered to come over and give us a hand!

We have a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving! Not being hit by a tornado that came very close, wonderful neighbors, and animals that are smart enough to stay in the barn during a storm!

We are entering a new season in our house. The season of schooling. Hard choices abound. For most people there are 3 main options.  Send your child to public schools, private schools, and homeschooling. They all have pros and cons.  We can’t afford private school, even if I work more than I do now, and I have some serious issues with our current public school system. (PAUSE to say that I have ZERO issues with all the fabulous, sacrificing teachers in our public school system…..you all are amazing…..seriously, I don’t know how you put up with all the C*@P that you do – my issue is with the box that you are stuffed into) And so for us, in this season, homeschooling makes the most sense. I am home most days anyway with our younger two, and additionally, we are fairly sure that our first has some learning differences.

I am terrified that he will be labeled the bad kid, or the loud kid. He gravitates towards those kids with the worst behavior and copies them. Is that just my kid? Does your kid do that? He is also incredibly bright, and I’m worried that his learning differences will be ignored because he’s able to compensate well and he won’t fall behind.

I was told by teachers that “it’s no problem if they aren’t falling behind, we don’t worry until they are falling behind the class!”. As if this would make me feel better about that. Except that I don’t feel better, in fact, I have a huge problem with that. How many kids are not reaching their full potential in life because they just “aren’t falling behind”? What if his potential is to be a grade ahead, two grades ahead? Even if his potential is to be a grade behind, his individual learning needs will still be placed to the side for the benefit of the group as a whole. I reject this. I know we are capable of much more as a society, and until there is a better solution in our public schools, I will take control of our children’s education.

So….stay tuned for some homeschool adventures!! I have NO IDEA what I am doing…so let’s learn together!! Got any burning homeschooling questions? Post them below!!!