Mar. 25, 2006 - I can't believe I'm going to try blogging!
I guess blogging is the thing to do these days. I may as well try it and see what happens. 
Here is a brief introduction on us: I am a 31 yr old mom to three beautiful girls, Maegan age 10; Emily age 6; and Sarah who will be 3 in a couple weeks. No boys in this house yet (I'm still hoping we can expand our family by one more....but what are the odds we'll end up with a boy after three girls?).
We are of the LDS faith and were married in the St. George Temple. My hubby and I will celebrate our 13th wedding anniversary later this year. He is a commercial realtor by day, and a weekend warrior gun enthusiast. He is very much into preparedness and being financially independent as well (and of course I support him in these areas completely) I am the stay at home mom who plays the role that so many of us do of maid, cook, chauffeur, nurse and teacher. It is this last role of teacher that I want to focus on in my blog.
This year is our second year of homeschooling, using A Thomas Jefferson Education. For the most part, I'm loving it. I believe in it, and want to be able to trust the process as my own doubts and fears come up, and especially as we are doing our best to be "off the conveyor belt" in letting the kids take charge of their own educations. There are days when I question my sanity, although I know it is what we are supposed to be doing. I don't want to require too much, and I want to inspire more. Its a fine line that I'm constantly trying to stay in the middle of.
Maegan is my love of learner. She is reading SO much more than she used to in her first year of homeschooling. Seriously, in her first year, I doubt that she read much of anything that was longer than a paragraph or a magazine article. Now, she has gotten into the American Girl books and has read several of those sets. She's read the first Harry Potter book, The Life of Our Lord (well, most of it) by Charles Dickens, and she's nearly through with The Diary of Anne Frank. Looking through reference type books about various different subjects is also something she does, then reads up on whatever it is she's looking at. She loves to write, both long hand and on the computer, about nearly anything. Her writing is anything from creative stories, to fairy tales, and about her ideas on healthy living. Her math skills are "behind" as far as grade levels go....still trying to master her times tables and things. I'm trying not to fret about this and allow her to develop her math skills as needed and in her own way and time. Maegan has been taking piano lessons for about 9 months now and has just excelled with it. Piano was something she was hesitant about at first, but then immediately fell in love with being able to make music.
Emily is smack in the middle of her core phase. She mostly just PLAYS! This is good for her, because she has tendencies of short attention span and impatience for things she's not interested in. Because of this, she has an amazing imagination and is able to entertain herself for long periods of time...with even the simplest of toys, or no toys as well. Although she plays alot, its amazing what she's learning, and I don't know where its coming from, because I honestly don't sit down with her and "teach" as much as I should in the traditional sense of desk work. I guess she's just picking up stuff here and there, from all of us. She still isn't reading completely on her own, other than very s-i-m-p-l-e three (and sometimes four) letter words. One of her favorite things to do lately is to sound out different things to write. Some of her spellings are correct, other spellings I haven't a clue what she's written and have to ask her to translate. Her artistic skills are really improving and she draws some really cute things for us. A few months ago, she went through a phase where all she wanted to do was color, or do water paints. According to a holistic chiropractor/doctor we were seeing at the time, its because her brain "needed" those colors to process at that time. I'd still like to get her reading though, because I think that would un-complicate a lot of things in our homeschooling adventures and expanding her interests of being able to read her own books. Emily takes a "Music Together" class once a week with other children of similar age. This is mostly a music appreciation type class where she's exposed to many different types of music, but where she also learns rhythm, tone, singing, and basic dance moves to whatever music is playing.
Sarah...well....she's almost three. Her whole world is playing, and of course she is a smart little cookie. (or at least we think so, but we're not biased or anything! ha ha!) She has an amazing vocabulary and speech skills, most likely because she is with her mommy and sisters for most of the day. Some of her favorite things to do lately are dress up and play with dolls and Barbie's (yes, most of the Barbie's end up naked and in the bathtub too). In January I organized a play group with some other moms in our neighborhood that also have 2-3 yr old children. We take turns hosting, but are able to drop off our child for 2 hours weekly. Sarah has really enjoyed going to her friends' homes, playing with their toys, and having a yummy snack too. Our next turn for hosting playgroup is the day before her 3rd birthday, so that will be a little friend party instead of regular playgroup. She'll be so excited and has requested a Cinderella party. Sarah also takes a Music Together class once a week, with kids under the age of 5. The same music is used as in Emily's class, but everything is geared towards the younger age group. Its amazing to see how far she's come since the beginning (in the fall), how she can sing quite well, recognizes rhythm and pitch and anticipates what's coming next.
OK, so that just about wraps it up about who we are and what we do. I'm going to try to write more tomorrow (Sunday) when I have more time. I'd like to focus on changes that I'd like to make in our homeschool.
Comments
Mar. 25, 2006 - Welcome to homeschool blogging!
Posted by TRINITYPREPSCHOOL
I am also new to blogging. It's been 6 weeks and I'm hooked. Have fun meeting other homeschoolers here. We needed to join this century's mode of communication sooner or later, right? Well, we have arrived!
Learning by trial and error,
Maureen
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