Okay, here goes my first blog!
Let me just start off by saying that I am so lucky and blessed to have such amazing children. Being able to stay at home with them has been the most amazing gift. Believe me, we have our bad days, but overall, it's brought me a joy that I never knew existed before starting our family.
I guess first I'll start with some background. Homeschooling started casually for us last year when we realized that we couldn't afford a good pre-school. It was at this point that I started learning about different teaching styles and methods. I was introduced to Waldorf and even though it was a little hard core for our family, I took a lot of great things from it...like learning by nature, and letting your children BE children and to SAVOR their childhoods. We started the year off doing a lot of projects, taking nature walks, and reading lots and lots of books. After we moved in December, we got out of our rhythm, and somehow coasted through the rest of the school year. This past spring though, Grayson started reading (pretty much on his own) and I decided to start him on a Kindergarten curriculum workbook. He sailed through the entire book over summer!
This year, we are official homeschoolers and have found an amazing support network that will give us everything we would be missing from being in a school....field trips, science fairs, Spanish class, a Kindergarten graduation, etc. Grayson started a first grade curriculum book and is doing awesome. So much of it he already knows...somehow. He definitely is a great student and loves to learn....he makes it easy!
Since Noah is home with us I have tried to incorporate things that are good for both of them, like painting, baking, and crafts. We do Grayson's schoolwork while Noah is napping, but the first part of the day is for outside play (especially now that it's cooling off :) and a project of some sort. Yesterday we did some Halloween projects. Grayson was feeling under the weather so we just spend the day relaxing and taking it easy. That is one of the best things about homeschooling...being able to work the day AROUND the kids rather than working the kids around the day. We painted some rocks like pumpkins and made paper bats on clothes pins that we clipped around the house. They were fun and easy and broke up the day for Grayson, who didn't feel like doing much of anything.
