A long overdue recap

I really thought that I could keep up with my regular blog and a homeschool blog, but I think I was wrong. 8 months without a post. Shame on me! I am determined to get more disciplined in how I maintain info about school.

For the recap:
We completed our first year of home ed at the end of June. We used Sonlight Pre-K curriculum with Singapore Early Bird Kindergarten Math, Handwriting without Tears, and Get Ready for the Code. Overall I was happy with our curriculum choice. I was not always happy with the stories for read-alouds from Sonlight (sometimes I did not think the subject matter was age appopriate) but the joy of HS is that you can ditch it if it isn't right for you. And we occassionally did that. The only thing Jewel absolutely did not enjoy was the Mother Goose book. We did use it, as I think it is important to hear rhyme and meter. But more often than not I would read it while she was doing her worksheets. So she *heard* it without really having to listen to it, kwim? We did some fun field trips during the year--went to a few museusm, went to Legoland, visited Beatrix Potter world and Beatrix Potter's home, explored castles, watched a glass sculptor at work, went to the Sonoran outdoor museum/zoo, saw dinosaurs at the Natural History Museum and walked along the Thames River. We built our own scale, did lots and lots of drawing and played with play dough. We've played dominoes, and Candyland (more for Flower's color learning) and Scrabble. Nature walks happened regularly. We watched the swan eggs and enjoyed watching the cygnets grow. We have watched goslings turn into full-size geese. We are currently watching the peachicks grow. But most of all we had a great time. She also participated in a weekly class at church with other 4-7 year olds which has dramatically increased her confidence. And she has had weekly play dates with a friend while her mommy/teacher has had adult conversation with other ladies. It has been a busy year!

My goals for the first year were simple and not so simple:
Simple: Have fun, see that learning is part of everyday, read lots of books. We accomplished all of that.
Not-so-simple: Have a beginning reader at the end of the school year, introduce math in simple ways, learn to tell time (Jewel's personal goal not mine), and feel confident that yes I can homeschool. She was so close to reading at the end of June, but did not feel she was able to read. She loves math and begs to do more and more. I really did not intend to finish Kindergarten math, but we have. She is constantly adding and subtracting and describing things in math terms. YAY! She is close to telling time, but not quite there. She is having difficulty counting by 5's which is kind of essential in time telling. But she consistently gets the hour correct and is beginning to get "half-past" consistently correct as well. For the most part I do feel confident that we can homeschool. I am more and more confident in putting the book aside and doing it a different way if the book is not helping. I am enjoying myself and I know she loves it so I guess it is working.

What since June? I wanted some time off. Jewel wanted to keep doing school. She won. Our summer program is Geography (a combination of A Child's Geography by Ann Voskamp, Usborne's Child Atlas, Australia to Zimbabwee Child's Alphabet, and lots of playing on Google Earth), German (Rosetta Stone) and Swimming lessons. We are having so much fun. The whole family is learning German together. We practice at meal times and on walks and where ever we are. It is actually beginning to make sense to me. And when Jewel was adding in German this week I realized that both language and math were melding. Real education! How cool! She has completed her first badge level (#2) in swimming and is in her second round of classes. She is doing really well. Her main drawback is not wanting to put her face in the water--but she will get past that. Although I thought three things were enough for a summer session--she was bored. Her church class and regular play dates also ended during the summer so we needed something else. I picked up Usborne's A Child's Art book and we have been looking at a painter or genre a day, using the internet to find other paintings by that artist and then drawing or coloring similar themes. Both Jewel and Flower love it--and I see a real interest in art emerging. Next week we hope to go to a Rembrandt exhibit near here to reinforce what we have talked about.

But the biggest news is.....Thursday quite out of the blue, all on her own, while playing Starfall on the computer she started sounding out the words and actually reading the stories herself. And Friday night she helped me read the Dr. Seuss book we were reading for bedtime. And last night....she read an entire beginner book by herself to me. Yes, Jewel is reading!!! I am as excited as she is. Her daddy is traveling this week, and she can't wait for him to be home tomorrow so she can read to him. After months of saying, "I'm not big enough" she now knows she can. YIPPEE!!

So there is our home school year in a nutshell. I am hoping to be more diligent to update this once a week. I think it will help me to see what we are doing. Thanks for reading the epic.