Category Archives: Homeschooling

Next Wednesday is the first day of school!  DH will be teaching 4th grade again at Neighborhood Christian School where J1 will be in 6th grade and J3 will be in 1st grade.  J2 and I will persevere at home. 🙂

J2 will be in 4th grade – with the exception of the subjects that are directly affected by learning disabilities.  Here is what we are planning to do for our school this year:

Bible – we will be listening to an audiobook format of the Bible and then J2 will narrate (ala Charlotte Mason) daily.

Math – at recommendation of our consultant Sharon we are not proceeding with Saxon math this year.  J2 loves math – and likes to do it independently – but Saxon math requires more and more reading.  Which means that he would need me to read it to him.  So, we are going to use Modern Curriculum Press’s mathematics this year.

Science – Elementary Apologia’s “Exploring Creationg with Astronomy”

History – California History with Beautiful Feet and field trips with Daddy’s class.  Beautiful feet is a literature-based approach to history.
Language Arts – This is where J2’s learning disabilities hit us the hardest.  We are using some older curriculum and going as slowly as necessary.  We are going to create games using flashcards of our hardest words and steadily work our way through it.  J2 is still writing a book about pirates and he’s eager to get back to it.  When I say ‘writing’ I mean that he tells me what happens and we develop those ideas into complete sentences and thoughts on our whiteboard.  He copies it down into his notebook and illustrates the section.

That’s pretty much the bones of our education this next year.  I look forward to it and dread it at the same time.

Last night, after baths, J3 was reading me his homework books. J2 sat down and picked up a book on the couch and said “Hey I can read this!” He read about 80% of the book out loud to his brother and I.

I can’t tell you how big this is!
1) He looked at the words in a book with out being TOLD to do it
2) He realized that he could read them
3) He determined to sit down and read
4) He persevered even when he ran into harder words.

Sadly, even amidst my complete JOY at this milestone — I find myself wishing the book was anything other than a beginner book. But I need to compare him ONLY to him. Not to his brothers, his cousins, other kids his age in cub scouts or at church. I need to remember where we’ve been and hold onto the fact that slow progress is still progress!