First Day of Homeschooling

Last Friday was our official first day of homeschooling. Why Friday? Well, I was behind in getting all my materials, in fact I'm still waiting on a couple books to arrive. So, Friday was when I was ready to start and that also gave me the weekend to think about how to improve. We've chosen a Christian curriculum that a couple of my friends have done called Sonlight. It's literature based and has lots of new adventurous books to read. When we received the box, Isaac immediately went through and found the book with the dolphin on it. Ofcourse he wanted to read it right then.

We spent the morning going through our subjects, some of the letter recognition we zoomed through because Isaac is already reading. He does however, need to work on his hand writing, especially holding the pencil the correct way. I'm amazed how he loves to practice writing words on his magna-doodle. A couple weeks ago he spelled "Shark" and "Common" for common dolphin, I only had to help him a little.

Reece did "Preschool" while Isaac did his Kindergarten work. I made a sensory bucket for her to play with (which Isaac wanted to play with too, ofcourse). I gave her some other new games and books that she only has during Preschool time. She sat in on reading time with Isaac. By the afternoon we were done and we could go about our normal errands and playtime. It felt very productive and Isaac said he loved school.

Tomorrow Isaac has his first elective class which is called mini Kinder. It's basically the same that kids do in regular Kindergarten class but only once a week. I think Isaac will enjoy meeting some new friends and learning from a new teacher. However, he's most excited about playing on their playground which has a pirate ship.

Jake and I are both really excited about homeschooling our kids. We have a lot of reasons why we've chosen to do so. One of which is the flexibility it offers. Since Jake does not have the normal Sat./Sun. weekend, the kids can still spend time with daddy on his days off during the week. We can also adjust our vacations to when Jake has the time off, like in the middle of October.

We know homeschooling is not for everyone, and we don't want anyone to feel bad or weird around us for not homeschooling. This has been years in the debating process, since before Isaac was born. We're blessed to be surrounded by great examples and mentors that have helped us make this decision. 

We do get the big question "Aren't you worried about socialization?" From what I've read and seen personally, that seems to be just an over generalization of the small percentage of homeschoolers who have weird parents, have weird motives for homeschooling and who turn out weird kids.   The kids I've seen have grown into mature, intelligent, normal kids. I read an article by the Pioneer Woman that does a pretty great job of explaining how homeschool children are socialized. It's a good read for inquiring minds. So, the answer is no, we're not worried about it. But do keep us in your prayers as we venture into this new world.