Thoughtful Thursday Week 33 – Discoveries

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For the first couple of weeks when school gets back in session, our violin teacher does not teach any lessons. She says the kids are too crazy with going back to a school routine to do any meaningful practice or to even pay attention in violin lessons. So she stays away from students for the first two weeks of school to give them time to adjust and get their bearings. How wise!

Thoughtful Thursday Discoveries

This is now our third week of school in this new school year (2015-2016) and we are finally settling into a routine. I have made some discoveries while trying to teach both of them “officially.” My youngest is now in kindergarten, so I have to involve her in four hours of learning every day. And here’s what I have discovered:

1. She can join us for my son’s language arts classes. She sits in my lap, which she loves. My son reads for his Reading class, listens and repeats after me for his Grammar, and then listens some more and does some writing for his Writing class. We have story after story in these classes, and I figured out my kindergartner can sit and listen. She enjoys being with us, sitting in my lap, and I can count this as school for her. She leaves when we do Spelling and Math. It’s not that interesting, unless we play a math game like Go to the Dump.

If you are a Right Start Math mom, you know what I am talking about. If you are not, it’s like Go Fish with making 10 out of two cards. She loves to use the abacus to see what makes 10 if she has a 6 in her hand, for instance. Hey, I can even leave the room for a few minutes to start lunch or a laundry load while they play and thus rehearse math facts. Who knew?  Continue reading »


Thoughtful Thursday Week 15 – Preparing for Two

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It is April, almost the middle of April, to be exact, and that means only one thing: we are planning for next year. The biggest change for us is that we will have two students now officially homeschooling and registered as such. Our daughter starts homeschool kindergarten in the fall. The sounds of that sentence cling and clang against the furniture in my room as I type this and say it out loud. It’s a cascade of feelings. Our daughter is our second and youngest. We don’t expect we will have any more children. So… there will be no more preschooler running around the house while older brother does school with mommy. Now our son will have to do something by himself while I tackle Phonics with the kindergartner.

Thoughtful Thursday - Preparing for TwoHow is that going to work? What will he do while I do school with her? How many subjects can we do together? Do I keep the curriculum I used with him in kindergarten? Do I add anything else based on her strengths and weaknesses? What is her learning style?

I have a lot of questions to answer. The above are only the first that come to mind. Like dominoes falling over more dominoes, the questions keep triggering more and more questions.  Continue reading »