Homeschool Update

Let me tell you, I was glad for the break to come!!!  Homeschooling is wonderful and fun, but also hard and stressful.  (For me and my children, anyway)  We have very good days and then very difficult days where nobody seems to want to cooperate or do anything happily.  I was showing my nephew (who is grown-up and has children of his own, one of which is older than my oldest child) our school area and talking to him a little bit about what we do for 'school' and I told him how excited the children were for the break.  His response was, "That's good!  That means you must be doing it right!"  It definitely made be feel better because my thought was:  How wonderful, the children hate school.  What am I doing to them?!?!  I will be the first to say there is no *right* way to Homeschool and I definitely do NOT think I have it all figured out.  But, what happened this morning made my day, no my week.  Maybe even my year.

Emma came to me after breakfast and said, "Mom, I want to do school again."
Me:  Really?  Why?
Emma: I'm tired of waking up and not having anything to do.
So maybe she really does secretly like school!
Last night Grant was also telling us he wanted to do History.  But, he did not want to 'do school'.  We told him History was school and he did not want to believe it.  He doesn't like 'school' because I have to spend time helping Emma and Arianna and am not spending enough time with him one-on-one.  Oh I wish that I could multiply myself!

Emma is making great progress with her math- she has been really working hard at Multiplication and Division and fractions.  She is really getting good!  The curriculum we use (Singapore Math/ Primary Mathematics) really encourages mental math and Emma is doing fantastic with that.
Emma is reading more and more on her own.  She flies through chapter books now.  She is really enjoying Magic Treehouse books and will read most anything else she can get her hands on.  She is reading The Mouse and the Motorcycle, by Beverly Cleary right now. (Grant actually got it in his stocking).  She has read Black Beauty about 3 times, loves the other Beverly Cleary books about Ramona and also read Pollyanna.  We have a great Language cirriculum (First Language Lessons) as well, and I am so proud Emma with how well she is memorizing poems (I think she is up to nine now!), learning the parts of speech and the basics of grammar.  She gets 100% on her spelling test each Friday.  She is also writing cursive very well.

Arianna is reading like a pro these days!  She has watched her big sister enjoying Chapter books and has started to read the Magic Treehouse books as well.  She is on her second one.  We are always impressed when she reads her verse of scripture at breakfast.  She is really doing great.  She also enjoys addition and subtraction and writes very well.  She is a smart little cookie.  Arianna asked to do spelling just like Emma, so I bought her the first Spelling Workout Book.  She complains sometimes about doing it (go figure, she is the one who asked for it.  I wasn't going to start her on it until next year!)  She also gets 100% on her spelling tests on Fridays.  She has also memorized almost the same number of poems as Emma.

Arianna in her princess dress-up playing a math game with me.

She figured it out!

Grant can write his name if he wants to.  He is getting great at saying the alphabet.  Other than that, I don't push him a whole lot.  It is cool to hear him recite poems that he has learned just by being in the same room with Emma as we do language.  He absorbs a lot just by being with us.  I try to read to just him everyday, but wish I could do it more.  He LOVES being read to.  

Kate is a great napper, for the most part, so that is when we do most of our school work; math, language and reading during her morning nap and history, science, and art during her afternoon nap.    She is growing and learning more everyday.  She can stand for a good few seconds on her own now, goes up and down the stairs on her own and says Mama and Dada all the time.

Playing with a crawfish at the creek near our home.  (Can you tell I let the kids wear anything they want?  Another plus of homeschooling!)

They got a real kick out of seeing the thing grab onto the stick!

We love playing with living things!

A cool moth we saw outside in our yard on the flowers Emma planted in the Spring

So, homeschooling is definitely a challenge for me and some days I wonder why I make my life so difficult by homeschooling in the first place.  But, I know that I felt strongly that this is what I needed to do.  Why?  I am not sure at this point.  I know I learn something new everyday.  I adore reading to the children and know I will cherish that time forever.  I am so glad the children get to spend so much time with Kate and get to know her so well.  Hopefully with this new year, we will be able to improve in areas that will make our lives better and more enjoyable.  (Like patience for me)  (Listening and obeying for the children)