Tonight, as I was researching ways to enhance our study of George Washington, I had a revelation. My daughter learns best through reading quality literature. When she was in PS, she (and I!) were always frustrated because there wasn't enough time to read for pleasure. When she came home in the afternoons there was always homework to do -- most of it mind-numbing -- things like word searches, fill in the blanks, and copying your spelling words five times even if you know them already! By the time she could make it to a good book she was just too exhausted to read. When she did read a book (I will use the first book in The Little House series as an example), her teacher told her she needed to read it through twice before she took an Accelerated Reader test on it because it was worth so many points and she couldn't possibly have understood it all in just one reading. WHAT?!?!
Since she has been homeschooled she has read wonderful books such as "The Skippack School", "The Matchlock Gun", "Pedro's Journal", "Squanto Friend of the Pilgrims", "Pocahontas and the Strangers", "The Corn Grows Ripe", "A Lion to Guard Us". AND..... she has read the first five Harry Potter books! Wow. Talk about an education! This is just the list in the first five months.
I attribute a lot of this learning to our wonderful curriculum from
Sonlight, and also from my research of the writings of
Charlotte Mason.
Another revelation I had was that, in just a few short months, my daughter has come to like math. Today, she actually told me she loved a certain type of problem we were doing and could she just do a whole page of problems like this? WHAT?!?! Horizons Math is just fabulous... the lessons are broken up into six small sections that are achievable. The student is introduced to concepts slowly and over many lessons, and this repetition helps build confidence and mastery. The problems she liked today? The Distributive Property. Enough said.
I am kicking myself for not making this decision earlier. My soon to be homeschooled Kindergartner will benefit so much from the mistakes I made with my first child. I am just thankful God led us to this point and has provided for me to be at home and educate my children. I am blessed.
Monday, April 26, 2010 at 9:28PM 
Reader Comments (5)
Absolutely fantastic! May the love of learning--and great books (not to mention math)--continue to grow [smile].
~Luke
I wrote out a very long comment and was almost to the end when a sweet little pair of hands came (sick with croup and fever hands) and pushed a button which made all the words I had typed disappear.
The whole of it was this...I was once a public school 2nd grade teacher who now stays home with my 3 children. I love teaching but love being home more. Since my oldest started school, I've realized that many schools just don't do a good job meeting the needs of ALL the students...and how could they? It's almost impossible with everything they have to do and deal with. My daughter was that student in Kindergarten whose needs weren't met. She seems a lot like your daughter. Very deep thinking, loves to read, academically very smart, etc. She starts 1st grade in a few days and I'm terrified it's going to be like last year. We discussed homeschooling and almost settled on it. But part of me (I guess the teacher part) really wants school to work out, but I don't want to regret wasting any more time if it doesn't work out.
We have two little boys, 3 and 2. I just can't imagine them having their needs met either. Obviously, the decision needs to be made before either of them begin school so they don't have to go through what my daughter has been through.
Sigh. I don't know really why I'm telling you this. I guess it just feels good to tell someone with a similar background who seems to have had similar reasons for thinking about homeschooling. Any advice? It's like I know that homeschooling would be a great thing for our family, but I just can't take the plunge. How did you do it? I'm sure the decision wasn't made lightly.
Anyway, anything you can offer me would be great.
Seriously, I just read your interview over at Live, Laugh, Love and could completely identify with it. The way you described how your daughter had become from being at school, is exactly the way I would describe my daughter. What a great interview.
Brandy, to tell you the truth, I just did it! From that point on I feel like God has been guiding me every step of the way. Remember that you know your children best and that makes you uniquely qualified to teach them! For me, Sonlight was a great starting curriculum because everything was all mapped out. As I move on I gain more confidence to piece together our curriculum.
I really know how you are feeling and where you have been. I was there last year at this time. I will pray you get some peace and that you make the right decision for your family! I am glad you found my blog. Let me know if I can help you!
You know having taught, I don't really worry about whether or not I'm capable of handling the planning, or teaching different levels, or whatever. It's more of a "I know how much work I'm going to put into this and I'll sacrifice whatever to make it the best" kind of stress that worries me. When I start something important to me I go all out. I need to learn how to have balance.
Pre-packaged curriculums are one of the things I am not sure about when it comes to homeschooling. Not that I think there's anything wrong with them (I have a friend who uses Sonlight too). It's just that when I taught, I was the teacher who was willing to scrap the curriculum if it wasn't working and usually I created everything for my students from scratch no matter how many different things I needed to plan or make to meet their needs. I got so used to making everything from scratch that I don't know how I'd handle using a curriculum at home. I'm afraid I'll be the same way with planning for my kids as I was as a teacher, which sounds funny, because I know that I would teach best that way and my kids would get what they need. However, it takes sooooo much time to plan that way and I'm a much happier and more patient mama when I get some sleep, which I hardly ever got when I taught. That's the selfish part of me talking I know. Plus, I'd hate to pay for a curriculum and not use it because we can't afford to waste money.
I guess if first grade doesn't meet my expectations, I need to just do it...like you did.
By the way, and totally unrelated, I used to teach in Southeast GA, but have fortunately been living in rural AL closer to both sides of the family for the last 3 years. Thought you'd like to know what corner of the states I am from.
Thanks for your reply. I have added you to my igoogle homepage so I can keep up with your homeschooling adventures and maybe get some more advice along the way. And more importantly thanks for your prayers.