Day 1

 The first day of homeschooling!  Yes.  You read that right.  We are homeschooling.  My children had been enrolled at a local Catholic school, and due to changes in curriculum and staffing, we felt this was a better choice for our family.  We filled out the forms required by California, and boom.  We are officially homeschooling.  We must teach, English, math, social sciences, science, fine arts, health and physical education.  But HOW we teach it, WHEN we introduce it, and WHAT methods we use are up to us.  There is no mandate that says I have to follow any specific curriculum.  I don't have to 'test' my children or have them take state testing or otherwise.  We do not have to follow Common Core and use the backwards methods they teach.  It's beautiful! 

You will see in the picture above our first day as we were taking Cody to Tiny Tots.  Yes.  He will still attend Tiny Tots.  It's inexpensive, close by and allows me more 1:1 time with the older two for more personalized study. 

 This picture above is homeschooling.  Working on dry erase boards with the handwriting lines on writing capital letters.  Funny.  Audrey was 'tested' at school to see what letters she recognized and could write.  She missed almost all except A, B, C, D, E and F.  The letters they had already covered in class.  Yet when I presented it to her individually and in a relaxed manner, she actually DID recognize most of them.  And could write most of them as well in a copycat format.  This will be a daily thing for us until she can do it by herself.... which I suspect won't be long!

This picture is also homeschooling.  My book in the front is my record book to keep track of what we are working on and what skills my children need help with or have mastered.  They are working on geo boards.  Great little plastic boards with small raised dots to put rubber bands on them.  This is math.  This is patterning.  This is spatial relations.  At school, a child may have 15-20 minutes in a center to work on an activity like this.  My 6 year old worked on it for 45 minutes non stop before asking to do something else.  My almost 5 year old?  1.5 hours!!!!!  No joke!  She wanted to keep doing it over and over and over and made many many patterns and we did addition with 2 + 3 = 5 over and over with the patterning she did. 

Long periods of uninterpreted play, exploration, and activity time are essential for kids to learn great skills.  I plan to provide those times for my children on a regular basis.  Some days it may not be possible.  I still have to go grocery shopping.  Do laundry.  Clean house.  Run other errands as necessary.  But if I can give them long time periods every day to work on these skills, I bet I will have faster readers, better math skills, and overall, better behaved children as well! 

Yesterday was my first day homeschooling, and I thoroughly enjoyed it with my kids!  On to day 2 today and we will see what it brings!