Confession time: the curriculum that i got for Gwenevere was below her standard of learning which has made learning boring for her. And I know there are tons of resources online and I could make up my own curriculum but I've been a slacker and haven't done it Mostly because I have a teacher that is responsible in helping me teach Gwenevere. I have to report to her weekly and I don't know what she knows about my curriculum. so I was afraid to go outside the box too much. Come to find out, my teacher has no clue what my specific curriculum covers so it doesn't really matter what I use from curriculum as long as what i'm teaching her is Kindergarten material. With this new news, I've been trying hard to get back on the homeschooling bandwagon. But we're doing things different.
Since Gwenevere loves playing on the computer I like to give her an hour of computer time but she has to work from specific schooling websites I have set up for her. I love watching her work.
We use:
Essential Skills Advantage http://login.essentialskillsadvantage.com/ which we got through a free ad on facebook
Starfall http://www.starfall.com/ which is a free preschool learning website
PBSkids.org
I'm not to keen on PBSkids.org but Gwenevere loves wildkrates and other animal related shows so I figured PBSkids could be called educational.
We mostly focus on reading now days. We go to the library weekly and we pick out 15-20 books. I love listening to her read but it's not always fun for her. Gwenevere was doing great with reading and then a few months ago had a panic attack and didn't want to read anymore. So I stopped doing it with her. But then I started hearing friends talk about who much their kids are reading in kindergarten and I started to panic. Maybe I'm not a good homeschool mom. Gwenevere wants to go to school so why shouldn't I let her go. Am i being selfish keeping her home.
After James and I talked on the matter I decided to give the school a call and see if we could get her in for the remaining year. Right before I made the call I said a personal prayer making sure this was the right thing to do. immediately a thought came to my mind saying "you already got your answer and it was to do homeschool." I continued to ponder from time to time about these tough choices and this is what I thought of: "homeschooling is going to be hard, it's not all fun in games, it requires discipline for you, a schedule and routine. (things i'm not good at). It requires sacrifice. You can become a homeschooling mom but you must keep your Savior in mind. He is the one who will help you become the mother you need to be. I have to depend on him and do what i need to do to be in tune with his guidance.
It's a lot to take in. I'm not perfect and i'm far from becoming what I need to be for my family. At times I feel I should pass my personal responsibility off and let Gwenevere go to school, but I keep telling myself these thoughts are from fear and I need to have faith I can grow. And grow quickly for my children's sake.
I'm not saying we'll stick with homeschooling, there might come a day when all our kids are in public or private schools. And that will be good too. I know Heavenly Father will make good thing comes from either situation. That's the beauty of this life.
If you care to pray for me and my children in our homeschooling process I would really appreciate it.
For now we're having fun in the processes of learning in our every day activities. ALL of us.
Everett spent almost an hour looking out the window and playing with his Elephants.
We're excited for Easter. When Gwenevere asked how much longer til Easter we decided a count down would be fun to have.
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| Gwenevere's countdown |
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| Grace's countdown. Jesus, Grace and Gwenevere and her drawing is a bunny |
We've been playing outdoors a lot lately and I love seeing what the girls find in nature.
We went to a park and they built sand castles with pine cones and found Duck nests (I'm not sure if they where actually duck nests or piles of sticks in the water, but the girls had fun walking around the pond.)
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| Grace's art captured by Gwenevere |
For family home evening we went to the Light House and explored. Everett loved throwing rocks. Gwenevere loved trying to skip rocks with Papa and Grace enjoyed running around and doing a little bit of everything. As we watched the sunset we saw a family of 5 Harbor Seals swim by.
We still do Preschool once sometimes twice a week. This past week we talked about the Letter S, snakes, spiders and spring time
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| I love her spot art |
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| Playing with cloud dough our friend Ellanora made for us. |
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| cloud dough and animals |
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| creating their own imaginary world |
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