Homeschooling - Spring 2014 Update

Posted by My Heart Song

4/30/2014

Homeschooling this year has been quite a challenge. 

My 10-year-old daughter is in 5th grade. 

My 6-year-old son is in Kindergarten.

Our 5th grade curriculum has been Sonlight, which we love for its strong emphasis on great literature. I am thankful that my daughter is old enough to work independently, as she's been expected to do so much more this year. This year's focus has been on the Eastern Hemisphere - it hasn't been our favorite focus of the ones we've studied this far, but we have learned new things through it.

We have just used a hodge-podge of workbooks with my son for Kindergarten. I am working through "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons" with him. He's nearing the end and is catching on well now. Teaching a child to read is an incredibly gratifying feeling! Once they know how to read, the entire world is open to them. 

We took a maternity break when our baby girl was born in December. We kept up on some of our basic reading together, but that was about all. Over the months, though, we've added more back in and are doing full-on school again these days. We will probably finish in June - later than we normally finish, but still acceptable considering the kind of year we've had. 

We participated in our wonderful local homeschool co-op again this year - Home Grown Hearts. We love this group so much! About 50 other local families, about 150-200 children. I hung out in the nursery most of the time and connected with other moms in this same stage of life. My 5th grader enjoyed classes like Lego Challenge, Women of the Bible, Flying Creatures (from Apologia Science) and Orienteering (similar to map-reading, scavenger hunting). My Kindergartener enjoyed these classes: Under the Sea, Tree Study, Schoolyard Games, and Drawing. Our co-op has a strong focus on worship and prayer and scripture memory. We enjoy it immensely and I'm glad we didn't take the semester off (as I'd considered, due to new baby). It was a joy to be a part of another semester with our friends. 

My husband was able to take the kids on a few fieldtrips this spring. They headed to a nearby county park for a lesson on maple tree tapping for syrup. He took my eldest to the local historical museum for a 3-hour discussion on the Civil War. And they have a field trip planned to visit Fair Oaks Farm next month. 

So it hasn't been a typical school year for us, but it has still been a good one. We're growing. We're learning. We're reading great books that challenge our thinking and teach us about people of other times and places. 

I am so thankful for the flexibility to homeschool. Through life's changes, through new babies, through all seasons of life, we are learning and growing together. I love that!