Homeschool Revelation!
With only 3 weeks left in the school calendar (for my private school kids) I’ve finally figured out how to homeschool my 1st and 3rd grader, which technically will be more 2nd and 4th grader in a couple of months!
When I started homeschooling them this year, I knew with packing up our old home in August and moving into the new one in November, homeschooling would be hit or miss at times. Yet we managed to get through Saxon Math lessons, though I couldn’t start my 3rd grader on his official math curriculum until I found the box I packed it in! We’re about 1/2 way through the curriculum now for both of them.
We also managed to do more than 1/2 of the Alphabet Island Phonics and Spelling I just love it and to be honest, I think if I taught it the way it was planned that 1/2 we’ve accomplished should have taken a whole year. I was fortunate that I could teach much of the Alphabet Island to both my 1st and 3rd grader, reinforcing things my 3rd grader already learned. At times I wondered if my 1st grader understood all the rules, though she did gain some insight, I wondered if she would remember it.
So where did my revelation come in?
For the last couple of weeks I’ve been increasingly frustrated with my 1st grader because she hasn’t been getting the idea of suffixes and the doubling rule (Heck, I just “got”it myself!) I knew my 3rd grader was being stifled, but because of my lack of organization this year (and staying on the computer way past the time they woke up in the mornings) we usually didn’t get around to school until 11 am. Then it was rush, rush, rush…do what we can. I knew it wasn’t a good plan, but I couldn’t get out of the routine. Until yesterday.
Instead of being on the computer in the morning, I decided to homeschool my daughter. She always rises an hour or two before her brother who’s been in Peter Pan and is out way late. Even if he wasn’t staying up late, he loves to sleep in. So I had a lightbulb moment. I could homeschool her even before he got up. I could give her my undivided attention for 30 minutes to an hour without the stress of trying to work in challenging my 3rd grader and then be done with math and phonics for her.
What a revelation! I tried it officially this morning and as we speak she’s working on math sheets and my son just got up. Essentially I’m finished with her formal schooling and now I’ll just direct her to other educational manipulatives, crafts and books.
My son is eating breakfast and now the challenge will be to find the motivation to spend time homeschooling him. I’m in the middle of Alphabet Island and I’m not sure if I should continue with him and not my daughter or continue with him and skip the harder concepts for my duaghter and bring her in on the easier concepts. I know I’ll go back over Alphabet Island with her next year, probably do a review at the beginning of the year, then I plan to jump into Saxon Phonics 1. Both programs use different approaches and I know the holes will be filled in even though I’ll be using Saxon 1 instead of Saxon 2. I’ve been told, essentially it’s the same thing.
So that’s my plan. I also plan on having them do school for the rest of May and then do some school (math and phonics worksheets) for the summer. I don’t want to burn them out and I don’t want to burn out, especially since I ‘ll be teaching at my kids’ school 2 days a week next year.
The only problem I see with this plan is when do I get to write? I need to discipline myself to get off the computer in the morning when my daughter wakes up and then carve out some time each afternoon. I don’t think the afternoon part will be hard. The kids usually have their game time them and I’ll get in several hours!
You’re turn to share! What are your homeschool revelations?
