Kindergarten

Ezra started Kindergarten this year and I don't miss him or even make him get dressed. If he's late for school, no big deal. And if he just isn't in the mood, we skip... Okay, not exactly, but real life is in those words somewhere.

We are homeschooling.

For this year at least. Every other morning I second guess my decision and waiver on whether this is the right thing for my child, but I am trying my best to stick to it and make it work. I decided awhile ago that I was going to homeschool Ezra. I have a fairly long list of reasons (which I won't list, but if you are really interested then I might consider sharing..) I'll just share this one: I received an impression that this is what we need to be doing and I'm taking a leap of faith holding on to that main reason.

It is tough. It is the hardest thing I have had to do as a mommy so far mainly because there are so many insecurities and doubts I have, but every now and then I am blessed with a moment or two that reminds me why I truly want to be homeschooling right now. We are still figuring it out and I am trying to be patient with Ezra and with myself while we figure it out and make it work.

I was terrified that I was messing him up, but then I figured that since he is on the younger side of the Kindergarten class this year, worst case scenario is that we act like he never had Kindergarten and then send him next year. (Not going to happen, but it for some reason gives me a little peace of mind to have that thought). I also have a very long list of doubts and fears that sit next to my list of reasons to homeschool, but I'm trying not to focus on those.

So, here's how school works (and sometimes doesn't) for us:

We have goals. We are working on Memorizing, Reading, Writing, Spelling, Math, Science, Geography and Cooking ;) I hope to squeeze a little Spanish in there every now and then too, but I don't want to overload him, so we are taking it slow.

Our goal is to complete 3 lessons from 2-3 different subjects each day. This takes anywhere from 2-5 hours per day(not including my prep time oi!)
We always do reading and then we normally do math and then our 3rd lesson is what varies the most.
We are doing reading lessons from a book called, Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. So far so good. It is several steps back from the reading level he was at, but the complications it promises to solve are complications we have encountered, so we're giving it a try. I am trying to take this year slow and mostly use it as a time to teach him to learn (and teach me to teach).

Our goal is to memorize the 13 Articles of Faith. He has the 1st one down, we are still working on the 2nd. When we are done with these we will move on to simple scripture mastery (ex. key words or phrases)

Our goal is to have 5 spelling words a week and a spelling test each Friday. (These include site words like, "you", "the", "like", "have" and other easier phonics words like "cat", "dog", etc.

For science we are learning about the body right now (Ezra's request). He wants to know everything about how our bodies work, so I am doing my best to roll with this one. I am trying to come up with a new body topic for each week. Some seem harder to spend a week on. Like the 5 senses. I had a week planned, but that really doesn't seem like a week long lesson. We did it in a day and moved on. That's a great perk to homeschooling :)

We just got some amazing helpers from Grandma that has him extra excited about learning! Thanks Grandma! One of the things she sent was a Magic School Bus Chemistry kit. I'm considering joining their monthly science club to get monthly packages because it is so cute.

So this is all trial and error right now. It is stressful and confusing. It is overwhelming and intimidating, but we are doing it. I just hope I don't screw up our babies. It's kind of a scary place to be in when you realize that homeschooling means you can't blame anything on things he learned at school. You are school and what he learns will be your fault, like it or not! ;)