First of all, we did NOT, I repeat NOT, begin homeschooling to homeschool. Clear as mud?

Our daughter's birthday falls after the Kindergarten deadline, however, we felt she was ready to learn. After spending a semester working in bilingual classrooms helping first grade children read in their first
language, dh and I thought I could perhaps continue that with our daughter. Hubby said that since I would be home anyway (I'd been working as a single mom up to that point), I might as well teach her. She'd have a head start on reading in Spanish, because more than likely the public schools would place her in English class as she is completely bilingual. One of our goals is that she be biliterate,as well as bilingual. I felt more comfortable teaching her in Spanish anyway- although it is my second language- simply because I mentored under teachers who taught in Spanish.

I did not plan any extravagant curriculum; I figured I'd focus on reading in Spanish, and just study things that were of interest to her. She was interested in plants, so at 4.5 years old, we began studying
plants and Spanish phonics. We always intended on putting her in school.

In December of 2003, I started actually reading about homeschooling. I studied up on homeschooling, read books, read websites, and by May the following year was ready to approach the subject with dh about "perhaps" continuing.  We were both concerned about her "socialization" and how she was so easily mislead to do the wrong thing. So, I began the conversation, ready to start in on statistics and all the wonderful things I had read.

Dh simply asked, "Is she learning anything with you?"

Of course she is, ask her anything about plants!

"So go ahead and continue. No child needs to spend so much time with other foolish kids anyway."

WHAT??!!

Let me explain the significance of this. My husband does not like to read, so has never read anything about homeschooling. My husband is an immigrant to this country from one that homeschooling is extremely rare, if not unheard of, so has not heard of homeschooling from anyone he knows. My husband is not a believer, so that is not a motivation for him to keep her out of school. However, I realized at that moment that yes, God does give wisdom to unbelievers to lead their families. My husband basically repeated back everything I had ever read, but had never told him, without hearing or reading anything on the subject himself.

Can you say overjoyed? Can you say humbled?

But, it was still considered temporary, until we felt she was socially ready to survive the onslaught of bad influences she'd be around in school. We figured we would place her the second semester of Kindergarten.

Second semester approached, and hubby decided that if she is still doing well at home, why change in the middle of the year. Just continue until the end of the year, and we'll look at first grade. Well, here we
are in the first grade, and planning curriculum for the second. The subject hasn't even come up as to whether or not we'd continue to homeschool.

Sigh, the weather is finally warming up here, and it seems too nice to be cooped up in the house. Fortunately, kindergarten only takes about an hour a day. The other day, Elizabeth decided to just take her work outside and finish it. Smart girl. Wish I had thought of it.

Well, after two years of being interested in plants, and a few months off to explore other science subjects, Elizabeth has decided on her next indepth study -- Plants. Again. She did also say she wanted to learn more about birds - species, foods, habitats, etc. - but wanted to do plants first. I've decided to go through Apologia Botany and do the notebook. The first time, I went through the book and just shared information as it came up. We checked out lots of books, and a couple of "adult" plant videos which she thoroughly enjoyed. Now that she can write better (in Spanish), I'll have her draw and write a plant notebook. I guess this means I'll need field guides in English and Spanish.

Hmmm, guess this means we're not skipping school for the rest of the year - or the summer for that matter - after all.

Well, this experiment is turning out to be a success. We started teaching our daughter reading in Spanish last year. This school year, which is her "official" kindergarten year at the age of 6, I was "supposed" to start her in English.

Needless to say, I did not. We didn't practice as much as I wanted over the summer, and she started off a bit slow. Thankfully, she picked up fairly quickly. She's now at the point where she feels comfortable writing in Spanish. And we do spelling using a native Spanish curriculum.

Because we are in an English majority area, and she's completely bilingual, I wasn't really worried about postponing the English phonics. But, decided to go ahead and get started since she's doing so well with Spanish.

At the beginning of January, I decided to start her on English short vowel sounds using Explode the Code. She's doing ok, but I'm adding more reading practice using Phonics Pathways. I don't understand why she has a hard time hearing the short /i/ sound. She can read Bob Books, and likes to play around on starfall.com, but of course still prefers to read in Spanish.

We were doing math in Spanish, but 2-3 days a week, we do it in English so she can understand the vocabulary in both.

Right now, she decided to make a TV set with remote, and she's sticking her face in it pretending to officiate a soccer game - in English and Spanish. "He kicks, he scores! Gol, gol, gol!!!".

Yeah. We love to homeschool. And we obviously watch too much "futbol."