first day of (home)school

The first day of school went fairly well. Okay, maybe I did have some frustrating moments and the girls got sent to time out a few times (better than the principal right?!), but it wasn't bad for a first "official" day. Actually, the "official" day is on Tuesday, but we want Friday off, so we started today. It's kinda nice having that flexibility!

Today, we did some phonics, writing, math, and spanish (really basic stuff). The girls really liked the end when they got to do free journal and document the bits and pieces of what they learned today. They dictated to me sentences of what they learned and I wrote it down. I am sure once we get into a regular rhythm of things, I will break down our precise schedule for you, but we aren't quite there yet and we don't do "school" all in one sitting. The day is broken up into parts and we do a chunk of school while Soul is napping. I hope to get baby and Soul on the same nap schedule, so it will make things manageable for the girls' learning time.

I didn't really do "preschool" with True as we did things weaved into the day, but it was never official, but with Brave, she is just being taught the same things as True. She doesn't get some ideas as quickly as True, but I figure she will get what she can and next year when she is in kinder, concepts will be much quicker for her. The tricky part is being patient with her and remembering she is still a whole year younger than True.

Thank you for all your encouragement and your questions regarding our decision to homeschool. Here is some background information on me that you may or may not know about that helped aid our decision to homeschool.

1. I have my California Teaching Credential and taught 4th grade for a year before I got pregnant and decided to retire early. Not that having a credential automatically makes you a great homeschool teacher or vice versa.

2. My siblings and I were homeschooled by our parents. My younger siblings did it through through elementary school and I did it from my sophomore to senior year in high school. My remaining two years I was integrated into a local private school and took my math and science classes there (it was too hard to teach myself physics and calculus), but I was so mixed in with the students of that school that I even went on the Senior trip with everyone.

3. Most of my really good friends are still currently teachers, so if I need help or have questions, I have plenty of support and trust me, I have already bugged some of them.

I know you must all have lots of questions of the whats, whys, and hows we are homeschooling and I promise to address that in another post soon, but I will touch on just one subject of homeschooling that I know some of you are wondering about.

True is indeed a shy girl and we do think it is important for her (and the rest of our kids) to be able to get social interaction. Though she is at home, she isn't deprived it as we are part of a this church family where she is able to engage and meet with other children every Sunday. In addition, our homeschooling is done through a public charter school in which we have the option of signing up for "enrichment" classes one or two days a week. She will be attending a full day of school once a week and will be definitely getting lots of social time through there. And honestly, she does have (almost) three little siblings she interacts with daily who are very close to her age, so she will be more than fine. Plus, when I was a kid, I was just like her, super shy and always hiding behind my mommy's leg, but look at me now... Ben says I ain't shy at all, though I think I am just a smidge.

That's our philosophy on the social aspect of homeschooling and I remember when I was homeschooled there were some kids who were a bit more peculiar than others, but really, I think they would have been just as peculiar if they weren't homeschooled. Plus, peculiarity isn't such a bad thing, I am so glad everyone is different and has their own quirks! Aren't you?!