THIS GIRL READS!

We've come a long way since the beginning of the school year. My mom homeschooled my siblings and me (I only did it in high school) and I got my Multiple Subject Teaching Credential and taught fourth grade, but homeschooling and teaching my own kid how to read seriously terrified me. Like seriously.

We have been reading together since she was a little babe, but I didn't officially start teaching her how to read until she reached kinder. Partially because I was nervous and part because I didn't want to rush it and just let her explore being a little toddler. The beginning of the school year was tough. I had just had a baby, on top of already having three little ones, and just diving into homeschooling. What comes so natural and easily to me, was a new and foreign skill to True, so we started at the very beginning... a, e, i, o, u.

I remember moments of wanting to pull my hair out because I wanted her to get it, and she would get it, and then one minute later forget it and it felt like we were starting all over again. I would call my BFF who is still currently a teacher and has always worked with the beginning grades to vent and figure out if I was doing things alright and she said yes, but just be patient. Patient. I needed a whole lot of that!

Fast forward to 6 months later and by golly, True's got it! We're working on fluency and she has still got more skills to learn as we are now tackling vowel pairs and silent letters, but we are getting there. She can read short little books. She knows her short vowels, digraphs, blends, and certain sight words and we just have to keep trudging along. This little girl of mine can even write short little stories! They are mostly written phonetically, so spelling is no biggie right now, but they are her stories and all because she knows her sounds and can read.

It is such a happy feeling as a parent and I can see the joy she has when reading and writing her stories. It just gives her another way to express herself and that is the best thing. Now, I still have 3 little ones, so I have to do this three more times and no doubt I will have more moments of wanting to pull out my hair.

When I take a step back and look at the progress though, it really is amazing. I love having this opportunity to teach my children and even though I am a stay home mama, I still get to use my schooling on my children. True can read and I have had the privilege of being part of that journey for her. It's not an easy one, but it's making memories together that counts! And I get the joy of doing this three more times...

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DR. SEUSS DAY

Like many other schools who are doing the Read Across America today, we joined in on the Dr. Seuss fun.

There was plenty of Dr. Seuss reading, watching a short animated bit about Dr. Seuss on Brain Pop Jr., and some short animated stories watching. Though judging by the girls' excitement, I say their favorite part was getting to eat green eggs and SPAM for lunch! And I threw in some green fried rice for fun.

Okay, so after all the healthy eating I talked about yesterday and eating fresher foods, well, I had to break it a bit and give them dyed green spam for lunch. It is processed to the max, but it did the job for today's activity!

Are you doing anything to celebrate reading today?

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?!