Our Homeschooling Journey...

The kids are learning so much as we continue to homeschool them. I am continuously surprised at the questions that are asked...ones that I have to look up the answers to. Many times I wished I had satellite internet and the laptop in the truck as we drive along places. I have started keeping a note pad to write down questions for us to look up so that we don't forget. I started Little Man this year at a 'beginner' reading level for the core we started and he surpassed my expectations on reading by far. Though the books vary in reading levels of 3rd through 7th grade, he was finishing books before their scheduled time and asking for more! How awesome! This year he will be reading much more and he is looking forward to it.

Tall Girl has always enjoyed reading. She finished well over 100 books this year. She has also learned to create message board web type pages. She is very proud of herself. We are planning to get her a program for school this year to learn more about that. She has come along well in Math with Dad's tutoring. I have given the Math over to him for the both of them...I can now focus more on History, Arts, Sciences, and Literature...Math was never my strong subject. She is something else that kid. She has started to settle down a start really taking an interest in drawing...she used to run through her lessons saying she couldn't draw, but I'd make her go back and try again...she has started to come to enjoy the process of making something, then making it better.

We took a vacation recently to visit family (more about that later-I'm working on the posts and the pics) and while there we took the kids to Cedar Point. At one point Little Man was looking at some of the coasters and saying he wasn't riding certain ones (this is after he rode on the 2nd tallest and fastest one-The Millenium). His Uncle Mike told him that one of the rides was only 33 yards high...he was trying to make it sound smaller than it was, because he knew Little Man was a bit frightened after the first one he rode-heck I was too-but he knew he would like the ride. "UH UH".....Little Man said, "Um, that's just 33 times 3 Uncle Mike...so that's like almost 100 feet!" Mike started laughing! He's a smart one that kid, lol!

So we will start another school year. By government standard school years, our kids would be in 4th and 6th grade, respectively, but I know that they far exceed kids in their grades in some things and are right on target with others. Of course people who don't really know them always question the need for socializing with peers of their ages, but then I have to gently remind those people that their kids aren't really allowed to socialize in school anyways...they get in trouble for talking in class, in the hallways and in the lunchroom...I think our kids get far more socializing than kids in schools today. Plus I'd like them to socialize in positive ways with all people. They have learned to deal with things like bullying and social cliques without stepping a foot into a regular school. They don't see why people have to act like that no matter what the age and though they may tease and gripe at each other, they are kind, respectful, and helpful towards others that they meet (most of the time-they are kids after all). Once those people get to know our kids, they realize that socialization is not an issue.

We are working on Core 4 from Sonlight Curriculum this year. It is the second part of their American History studies. There are some books I've added in as well for our church history studies. I've got to update all the book lists on my site. We will be adding in their Core 4 Science, Language Arts, Singapore Math, Handwriting, Arts, etc. Tall Girl will continue with her piano lessons that she loves and Little Man wants to start guitar lessons. We found him and older guitar while on vacation for $5. He was so excited to have a real guitar. We got new strings for it, some picks and a shoulder strap. He strums away on it all the time. Now to find him a teacher.