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Last updated on April 10th, 2022 at 04:00 pm
We made it halfway through our first year of homeschool. Yes, I know EVERYBODY is homeschooling in some way during 2020-2021, but I never thought I’d enjoy it as much as I have. In fact, I didn’t believe I was capable of teaching. 2020 was the year of surprises.
I wanted to post a little check-in about how our first year of homeschool is going, partially to document our journey and partially to let you know that we probably have many of the same struggles as you.
Juliana started Kindergarten this year, which was completely ideal because if you’re going to try homeschooling, Kindergarten seems like the best to start with. I decided to do it without a curriculum after listening particularly to this podcast episode. This seemed to suit our season of life because there’s low pressure. This homeschooling style is working for us, especially after the stress of being kicked off the California charter school list due to funding (don’t get me started).
One of the draws of homeschool for us is that we can include faith. We make prayer part of our day, learn about saints, read the Bible, and learn the very basics of our faith. The biggest part is talking about God throughout the day as we read through stories or when we have little skirmishes.
What we’ve been doing during our first year of homeschool
It takes us an hour to get through the bulk of our “work.”
We do a few minutes of dictation, to practice writing, learn to spell, and read it back. Once she’s completed that, we practice writing letters in cursive. I’ve heard so many people talking about kids not knowing how to read or write in cursive, and I’m determined that Juliana learns it!
In addition to dictation, we’re memorizing several poems found in the first section of The Harp and Laurel Wreath.
Our math lessons are short, reading one chapter per day from Life of Fred. I was thrilled with the idea of teaching math from a bland textbook, so I decided to try Life of Fred. It’s in storybook format with math applied in life situations. It makes math more interesting.
Most of what we do is read. Throughout the year, we’ve read the Little House series, two American Girl series’, and various other books. Our current read is The Trumpet of the Swan.
The amazing thing about reading is that you can pack so much learning from various subjects into a single book. For example, we’re learning some geography of the United States by following where Laura Ingalls and her family went in covered wagons.
Learning these subjects through story makes them much more interesting and exciting.
Since Juliana has such an interest in art, she received a couple of Smart About Art books for Christmas. We read about Claude Monet, so I scoured our library system for books of Monet’s art and other stories.
Juliana is also taking art classes (with some amazing paintings for someone her age!), piano, and swim lessons.
What’s working
Sitting together side-by-side to work and read has been a blessing. It feels, as Bonnie Landry says, cozy. I love being completely focused on my girl and watching her progress little by little. I can tell she feels encouraged at my joy in watching her.
Learning isn’t boxed into separate subjects, just as life isn’t separated by bells ringing every 50 minutes. I love how we can mix subjects.
For example, the final quote we read from Monet was about painting shapes …and we had just started working with tangrams.
What’s not working
The hardest part, which is probably difficult for many people right now, is finding community. I’ve tried to plan playdates, but with the latest surge in Covid cases, I’m not sure how our friends are feeling about getting together.
We ended up dropping her outsourced Spanish class (at least she got some exposure). We bit off more than we could chew with that one. I also haven’t consistently made her do coding but it’s something I want her to learn because I don’t get it (and I blog!).
Plans for spring
Our spring science project is gardening. We worked on our rose garden already, and Juliana tells me she wants to grow tomatoes. We’ll be going to the School of YouTube to learn how to do this gardening thing.
I’ll be exploring curriculums for next year to decide if that’s where we want to go or not. And if not, I’ve got to figure out all the legalities of that (gulp).
Overall, I feel good about our first year of homeschool. It’s a learning process for both Juliana and me. But I’m encouraged by her progress and the fact that I get to spend so much time with her. As the mother of an only child, this time is precious.
I don’t claim to be an expert in this —far from it. But is there anything you want to know more about? For example, which books and learning tools we use? How I keep track of what we cover? Garden project updates? Or even the experience of having an only child?
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