Homeschool Update

I feel a bit like I have been neglecting the blog. This is in part due to the fact that I have been neglecting the camera. I like to update with photos. But I think today, I will just update with words.

Life is going along in the ordinary way, which is good. Things out of the ordinary usually means the car broke down again. The car is still running-- few.

This is how homeschool is going for each child:

Ruth likes homeschool now because she has made a lot of good friends. She has spent a lot of time with her friends preparing for mock trial, and now that that is over, she will be spending an even larger amount of her time with her friends getting ready for the Shakespeare Play. As far as school work goes, the online charter school Ruth is on is a lot harder then when she took all honors courses in the public school last year. But she is still getting all A's. Ruth hates geometry and finds it rather challenging, so she quit doing it for a month while she nearly finished up the entire school year in most of her other classes. Ruth is now doing just geometry. I don't think she likes that very well. But, she has a month of work to catch on. So that is where she is by choice. Ruth has chosen to continue home schooling at this point probably until graduation.

Kate loves homeschool. I think she did after just the first week. Kate really enjoyed the Mock Trial competition. She was particularly good at spontaneous arguments in the position of lawyer. Now Kate is thinking about law as a career rather than a doctor. Kate is easy to teach, because she generally likes what she has to do, gets to work, and gets it done early. I like teaching Kate.

Johnny prefers homeschool too and is actually back to his fun self socially. At the end of last year he had been picking up some odd behaviors and was beginning to have trouble with friends. That is not the case anymore. He just needed more academically. I am often at war with Johnny to make him sit and study for more than 2 minutes in a row. But this is a war, I intend to win. I think his inability to study is the result of three years of being completely bored in public school. I give him a lot of difficult and advanced work. When he gets even a little bit stuck, he quits and goes and does something else. I am tough teacher though. I know what he can do and I insist that he learns to do hard things. Johnny doesn't particularly like to write, so I am making him do a lot of it. Of course, he is excelling in math and science. In math he is in the beginning of algebra one. I think once we finish chapter two, he will really start enjoying algebra-- problem solving is next and that is what Johnny is good at. Johnny is also doing well at learning some Japanese. He likes that, so he tries to do some extra stuff with it.

Adam is doing great. He will be completely finished with his first grade curriculum in 4 weeks. So I guess we will move on to the second grade for the last two months of the school year. Adam gets up early, gets to work on his own and finishes up before lunch. He is really easy to teach right now and is picking up his lessons well. However, I am planning on sending Adam to school next year. I think he needs more time with other boys his age, and Ruth , Kate, and Johnny all got a good sense of the consequences of good and bad behavior with their time in the public school. I want the little kids to get a sense of that too.

Rachel is struggling to learn to read. That is not unusual for my kids. Johnny is the only one of 5 kids so far that did not have to work hard to learn to read. But it is hard. I really don't like teaching my kids how to read. Yet, I have taught them all because school alone just doesn't do it for my kids. They need me reading with them for at least a half hour a day, and they need phonics lessons. It is nice to see the progress though. Rachel has an easy time memorizing words, but she struggles sounding out words. She has several books memorized. I have her point to the words as she reads them to help her remember the words for the next book. So far that is working better than all of the phonics and time spent sounding out words. It also seems to help to make her read a small amount in  unfamiliar books. I am also sending Rachel to school next year for the same two reasons I am sending Adam. I am also sending Rachel to school because she is very stubborn. I think it will do her some good to have to do what her teacher says everyday even though she certainly will not. But Rachel is shy. If she finds that she doesn't like school, or if I find that she is withdrawing from other friends and family, I will bring her back home.

I am finding it interesting:

How every kid has their own way of learning to read. Ruth was more like Rachel. Kate and Adam had to sound out every word. Johnny, I don't really know, because he moved from having a hard time reading The Cat in the Hat, to reading The Magic Tree House in about a month.

How much better a indivualized education is rather than the public school one size fits all . I have spoken with several public school teachers recently and have been surprised that they agree with me about the one-sized fits all failure in the American public schools.

I am learning that :

I will need to contact universities to find out what I need to do and what records I will keep for high school for my children. I will have to spend a lot of time on that soon as Ruth will start 9th grade in the fall. Kate and Johnny will start 9th grade the year after.

I will need to find out what I will need to do for Johnny to start college at about 16 years old. I have no intention of sending him away from home until after his mission, so we are planning on sending him to a local University.

All in all:

I am glad that I was prompted to homeschool my children. On the whole, it has been a positive experience the and the right thing for my children. We have met a lot of great people and a lot of great kids. I like that my kids have more time to work on their particular talents and can go ahead or stay behind depending on how well they are doing. Johnny was in third grade public school this year except for history is working completely on a 7th grade level. Kate is on level. Ruth is working at a 9th grade level while still in the eighth grade online program. Adam has been working just about 2 months ahead of public school first grade. So he is basically on level. Rachel is probably right on level for kindergarten.