Elementary school years in general. That's right. Those young, innocent years worried me. Why? Because kids learn so many basic skills during those years, skills they need later on in their education and in life. You know, things like readin', writin', & 'rithmetic! No qualms about algebra, geometry, biology... but elementary material, whoa, that put the fear in me! How do you explain things that you learned so long ago they're like breathing now?? And don't get me started on all the crafts & little projects that go along with elementary school!
Reading. Besides the general worry about the elementary years, teaching Grayson to read really intimidated me. I love to read & I was afraid that if I don't do a good job teaching this, I will have ruined reading for him, forever!
School becoming work - for me, that is. Don't get me wrong, it is work. You have to evaluate curriculums & decide which one is right for you & your child. (And do you know how many curriculums are out there to pick between?? It's a lot. I mean a mind-boggling LOT. And you'll find someone who "highly recommends" every single one, so there's no shortcuts, you have to evaluate them & figure it out yourself. Curriculum selection alone is enough to make a first time homeschool mom run screaming for a bubble bath & chocolate!) Depending on the curriculum you go with, you may or may not have to create the lesson plans. But even if the lesson plans are already laid out in your curriculum, obviously you still have to ensure you're familiar with the material, prepared with all the supplies you need for projects, etc. Oh, and don't forget the part where you actually teach your child. And oops, the laundry & dirty dishes sure did build up while I was busy working on school stuff - wait, it's supper time, already?? Good thing there's leftovers in the fridge! So, yes, homeschooling is a lot of work. But there's enjoyable work, then there's not-so-enjoyable work that you only do because you have to. I was afraid that school would find its way into the not-so-enjoyable category, in a hurry! I think most of that fear came from feeling so out of my element trying to select a curriculum and get started. Let's face it, selecting and implementing Kindergarten curriculum is not covered in the course of a chemical engineering degree. It's just not. (Can we just skip to chemistry, for pete's sake??) Feeling out of my element left me feeling like this will end up being a chore, and I wanted it to be something we all enjoyed. I know that to do it right it, WILL be hard work and that there will sometimes be rough days, but on the whole I wanted homeschooling to be something the kids AND I enjoyed. I want learning to be fun, for all of us, and even with the peace we felt about homeschooling, I was still afraid it wouldn't be a fun experience on the whole.
So, why continue down this path with all these worries? Mostly because we had that peace about homeschooling and not about other schooling options. Despite worrying, I was just trusting God that it will be alright, and he wouldn't give us this peace if it wasn't the right thing to do.
I was so blessed to hear my first encouragement as a homeschool mom before we actually started school last fall. And by encouragement, I mean someone outside of our family bragging on Grayson's skills! I was picking Grayson up at church one day, and a teacher asked if we were homeschooling him. I said "yes" since he's never gone to preschool anywhere, even though we hadn't actually "started school" yet either, but I was thinking, "Oh no, she's going to say he's behind all the kids that are going to preschool". But no, she totally surprised me and said "It shows!", then proceeded to brag on him for a variety of reasons! She probably has no idea how much that meant to me, but it was a huge encouragement to hear that before we even "started school". If he hadn't already fallen behind his peers while staying home with me instead of attending preschool, maybe it's going to be okay, right?
I know babies, toddlers, and preschoolers are constantly learning from the world around them, their play, having books read to them, etc. I wanted to start more structured "school" at 4 years old - not because I think it's the magic age that school needs to start, but so that we had a year to practice, a year to learn to ropes of homeschooling Grayson, before he hits official school-age (in our culture, anyway). So I started researching pre-K curriculums and nothing seemed right, most of it seemed too easy for his age. I started to look at some Kindergarten curriculums to see how much harder it would be, and found one that seemed ideal for us. I didn't think his attention span and energy level at 4 years old could handle a 5 day school week, so we compromised with Kindergarten curriculum that's right for him academically, but only a 3 day school week. So with the curriculum finally selected, we set-up our school area and the countdown began!
The morning that the countdown to school showed zero...
Grayson was almost as excited as on a birthday!
I deliberated for a long time on whether to actually consider him in Kindergarten or just preschool... if he's not doing 5 days a week, it's not really Kindergarten, right? Plus he's only 4 years old. But then I realized, I'm certainly not going to make him start over at the beginning again next fall. We're going to continue working through at his pace, adding more school days to the week as he gets older, and whenever we finish Kindergarten, we'll move on to 1st grade. Not totally sure when that will be yet, but he'll still be in Kindergarten this fall. With an increase in school days I expect we'll move on to first grade sometime before the next fall. With that in mind, I started to officially call it Kindergarten, took his "First Day of Kindergarten" pictures the morning we started school, etc.
Grayson asked to take a picture with his brother, but Harrison was not really in the mood...
With pictures taken care of, we settled down to our first day of school!
We started with a 10-day unit focused on creation. Grayson proved to be a great student, interested in everything and learning quickly. I quickly forgot all my worries and started to just enjoy this new role. We're now on our 6th unit of his Kindergarten curriculum, which combines unit studies with classical learning methods and Charlotte Mason technique, and also includes lots of Bible lessons. This is just the tip of the iceberg for his schooling, but so far we have had a blast. The curriculum is a great fit - enough book work to satisfy me and enough fun projects to keep Grayson excited about what I might have up my sleeve for the next school day. Basically, everything I worried about has been a complete non-issue. Maybe I should've listened to this verse to begin with...
"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.
Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Matthew 6:34
I'm often asked what I do with Harrison during school time with Grayson. The picture below sums it up. Harrison wants to be right in the middle of it. He's right there with us, trying to keep up.
I've learned to embrace the mess of a school day...
Grayson was proud of his accomplishment when we finished the first unit of school...
I learned that all the projects and crafts I thought would be so stressful are actually fun...
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| Sun Unit Sundial Project |
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| Sun Unit Raisin Project |
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| Cuisenaire Math Rods |
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| Leaf Unit |
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| Apple Unit |
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| Nest Unit |
We've worked hard...
But of course, we play hard too! Sometimes these silly moments happen...
And you've got to play with your best friend at "recess"...
...or the day they donned their Monkey aprons to bake a Moon cake...
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| Half Moon Cake |
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| Crescent Moon Cake :) |
And what's not to love about writing letters in jello once in awhile...
...it's not as messy as you think!
There's the cute things Grayson writes...
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| Mickey Mouse ears on his "O" :) |
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| A is for Apple! |
And then there's wardrobe... Obviously many people think of "school in your PJs" when they think of homeschooling. Grayson and Harrison take that freedom in attire to a whole new level. Plenty of times they're in normal play clothes for school. But then sometimes... sometimes you just need to wear a hard hat during school. It really helps you think better. You should try it. :)
Or maybe your football costume, complete with shoulder pads.
Or a Cat in the Hat hat, like Harrison. Or no shirt, because, to quote Grayson "my shirt just keeps itching me!". I mean, really... who could work on school with their shirt itching them?!
But PJ days certainly have their place, too!
And that sums up our first 4 months of homeschooling. It's been a blessing and an adventure!
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