Spring is on the way, though, and we're wrapping up our third quarter and looking towards next year - and we've decided to homeschool again. We've gotten through a lot of growing pains in learning how to homeschool, and the kids are doing fantastically well. That means it's time to start thinking about books and curricula and plans again, even while we're finishing out this year!
Sprout and I have found a good spot in working together. He's learned to take more responsibility for his focus and his work, and that SSHH and I are resources and helpers, not rule-enforcers. He's busy writing his first short research paper now - something that doesn't come into the curriculum until fifth or sixth grade in public schools - and he's doing a bang-up job. At the start of the year he did well but lacked confidence in math, and that's now one of his favorite subjects. We'll likely let him direct his own pace a bit more next year so he can move ahead if he's ready. And he'll stay active in Cub Scouts and track - the competitive team starts at nine, if he wants to keep running - and continue CCD class in addition to religion at home.
Sweet Pea loves school. She's always the first at the table with her folder and pencils in the morning, and she's genuinely disappointed when the weekend comes. We started the year just intending to let her do some coloring and letters and numbers along with Sprout, just so she'd feel included, but she declared that boring and so we've been following her lead, and she's learned to read independently and to write, and is finishing the kindergarten math books now. In the Fall, she'll "technically" be in kindergarten - she'll still be five - but she'll be working her way through first grade math and language arts. She's counting the days until she can start Daisy Scouts with the kindergarten girls in our parish, and she'll be doing track for little kids, too, as well as CCD. Her schoolwork takes her no more than half an hour a day, and it's been wonderful to see her learn so much in such a stress-free way.
And we've got a third student on our hands. Three-year old Sweet Potato put her hands on her hips and said she was mad that she didn't have a school folder, too, so we got her one. Now each morning she has a coloring page about a letter of the alphabet or a worksheet about matching or tracing to do, and she's happy to be a part of what's going on. She's starting to take an interest in reading, so we'll see where it takes us! She's "doing work" for about ten minutes a day, and we're careful to have her do only as much as she wants to and no more.
And all three kids spend much of their day "learning by osmosis." Sprout has a kids' Bible app on his Kindle that reads stories - and all three kids know it by heart. They watch videos and read books together, and can tell me things I don't know about everything from the Civil War to elephants to cataracts. We go on field trips and the littles learn from them right along with Sprout. And we learn as a family, whether that's cooking dinner together or shopping or feeding the dog. The year has not been without its difficulties - but we're through the roughest patches now, and looking forward to what the next quarter and next year will bring!
