Okay. So, as the title states I have a lot of explaining to do. When I wrote my last post I really thought we had passed our 100th day. It was soon after I posted it that I realized I had made a mistake. Since we only started in January and only have lessons five days a week, it's impossible to accomplish 100 days before May. If anyone realized this and kept it to themselves I thank you for your discretion. After I found out I knew I had to change it. I haven't gotten back on here till now so here it is. I do apologize for the wrong information....

AND NOW WE CAN CELEBRATE THE REAL 100TH DAY!!!! Yes, I have recalculated and can say for a certainty that our 100th day is coming up in about two weeks! I'm going to stop "school" on that day. I was trying to do a regular 180 day year so we could finally be called a private school according to Indiana home school law, but 100 days will have to do for this year. I guess I can count that as my preschool year or something.  So I'll do like every other home schooling parent and evaluate our year.

We did some of what we'll be doing in K next year. My 4 yr. old is right up there with my 5 yr. old so he'll just get the same learning as the older one in Sept.. I have seen him zone out in the math lessons though. He's not into the detail of a lot of the concepts being taught. If I have a question he can answer it and fill in the blanks where his sister falters, but he's not very interested in the "how" to some extent. He's a very interesting little boy. He's analytical and loves to try to figure things out. I can see him now loving science because you have to experiment to come to a conclusion. That's right up his alley. My oldest is more concrete, but is also very dramatic. I tend to think of concrete being the opposite of artistic, but she can do both. They differ, but in some things they're evenly matched. My daughter can do math just as well as my son, it's just that he seems to do it with a lot less effort than she does. She can get the concepts very fast, but she sometimes struggles in implementing them. He hears the concept and just flies with the application. Now that I think of it, he reminds me of Dory in Finding Nemo when she started jumping on the jelly fishes!!! That's him exactly! He'll listen to the concepts and apply it immediately. His brain can turn over the facts with lightening speed. My daughter tends to hesitate a bit, possibly to make sure she's got it.

In reading/writing/spelling/grammar (we use Spell To Write and Read (SWR) so all this is done together) they're about the same. I had my youngest just write on plain paper with no lines while the oldest practiced her writing with the dotted middle line and heavy top and bottom lines. Next year I'll try to go back to script with her (that's one solution in SWR for switching "b's and "d"'s) and have my youngest use the manuscript paper to write on. They're both reading very well and just about the same level. Their writing is about the same as well. In this too my son seems to do things a tad bit better. His writing is more concise and his quick thinking mind can turn sounds into words so fast he doesn't need to say the sounds out loud. He can put the word together in his head! We are up to the D list and will probably start the E list before we stop for the summer, but we'll be doing it again next year. That's one thing I love about SWR. You keep going over the same words and concepts. It'll be a bit different in Sept. but I'm sure they'll be fine.

Those were the only real subjects we did this "preschool" year. Next year I have a tall order  I'd like to fill. I want to start with music training (they already are well acquainted with classical, jazz and rap music... Christian rap of course) on the piano. I received some Music for Little Mozarts curriculum books (from that wonderful place I wrote about called Paper Back Swap) that seems quite good in introducing them to the piano and music in general. I also want to start training in art with that wonderful program I keep hearing about called How Great Thou Art. Another addition is language lessons in the language of love. I LOVE THE FRENCH LANGUAGE!!!! It just sounds so wonderful to me. I'm so excited to get Rosetta Stone (it's about the only world reknowned program that my children can use) and re-learn French (for about the third time for me) with them! Aside from all that, I'll also be doing history. It may seem like a lot, but Sept. is right before winter when we can't go outside, so I think they'll get used to doing all this work and make good use of the time spent inside. I've been prepping them already by getting them into audio books and listening to me tell them stories I'm reading or that I've made up. Sometimes they tell me stories they've made up. It's so cute!

Okay, so that's about it for my evaluation. Oh yeah one more thing. I bought my daughter the Early Readers Bible (which was so hard to find as none of the Christian bookstores in my area sold it. I had to get it from Amazon.com) for our K year but decided to let her start reading it now since she can and she loves to read it! She would read it all throughout the day if she could. She just loves the story of Jesus dying on the cross. We act it out she wants me to tell it to her while we're picnicing outside, whenever there's a lull she'll come to me and ask for that story. I try to emphasize that that was the only way for us to be with God and that the best part is that He rose again, but hse still loves the part about Him dying on the cross. I guess she's on to something so I'll just keep telling her all I know and praying for her to understand it all.

I have other things to write, but I'll just post them in another post or else this will become a book!

• Post A Comment! • Send to a Friend!

Posted by sdacrew

What a blessing it is to be able to take the time to analyze your children's learning style and adapt to meet their needs. That is one of my most important reasons for homeschooling.

• Permanent Link