It has been about one week or so of "officially" homeschooling my son for kindergarten. It has been a bit of a wild week, because, as I am coming to realize, when you have kids, every week seems to just be a bit wild. I have been doing my best to make observations and to keep track of what we have loved about homeschool, what we have struggled with, and as always... what motivates this kid to learn.
Homeschool Kindergarten PROS:
Getting Outside Anytime (you may also see this in the Cons, to be honest, because even though we both absolutely love getting outside, my son struggles to pay attention to his work.... ). When I was a kid, one of my all time favorite activities was to take a favorite book and to just read outside under a big tree in our front yard. I constnatly wanted to be outside, especially when the weather was nice. Now that I am homeschooling, my son and I have enjoyed so much more outdoor time than previously! We go on pond walks every single day, we read outside and today, I even brought his little desk outside for him to do some work (more on this below).
2. Moving at His Pace: This was one of the main reasons we had wanted to homeschool initially. It has been so fun to see what he can accomplish when he is moving at his own pace. He was in a Montessori school last year and there were so many kids in the classroom that he ended up spending nearly all his time in the reading corner. And at that time, he could only read a few words. There was so much just untapped potential there that we are finally able to really tap into. (Note: I believe firmly that even while a child is in school, that the parents still need to be the primary advocates and educators. We did continue to work with him at home on a daily basis, however, we both have so enjoyed getting to really follow his lead on a more frequent basis now that we are homeschooling)
3. No Morning Rush: I am 10000% a morning person... BUT, I felt like when we had to get up and go to school every morning, there was always this morning rush. I'm not saying that learning to get up and go at a certain time is a bad thing, but it has been so nice to be able to take our time in the morning. And since we haven't had to rush out the door every morning, we have been able to do all of these things in the morning:
Leisurely family breakfast
Time for him to make his bed
Morning pond walks
Morning read alouds
Easy and natural start to his "work day"
More time for lunches and for our SCIENCE LABS!!!
4. SO MUCH READING... This is probably my favorite thing... Any time we have a little bit of a transition, I love to just do a little reading. Sometimes he is reading, sometimes I am reading aloud to him, and sometimes we do every single word together. His reading abilities and especially his use of poetic devices has just exploded and I can't love that enough!
5. Selfishly, my teacher brain is also blowing up... So many incredible observations, so many connections, and so much more to learn! I am loving this "grand experiment" and am learning more than I can possibly write down!
6. In the current climate of our public schools, I have to admit to being so grateful to have him home with me. There was just another shooting at another school and it is just the most devastating thing. I can't even imagine what the families, teachers, staff, and community members are going through right now. I dont' know for sure how long we will homeschool, but the safety concerns of our schools is without a doubt a factor that we have considered.
Okay, now... the cons...
Homeschool Kindergarten CONS:
Working Outside: While we absolutely love getting outside and doing work outside, especially now that the weather is so gorgeous... my four year old super struggles to finish his tasks because there is so much goodness outside! So... I may have to rethink the whole getting outside thing. Perhaps getting outside really needs to just be to play and to enjoy nature. Perhaps we need to keep the language arts and reading work to inside more often than not. At this very moment, he is trying to complete what should be fairly easy spelling work, but instead, he was just chasing a butterfly, examining the leaves on a crepe myrtle, and now he is rattling our chimes in our big tree. I say this with a smile on my face
Structure Struggles: We are having a hard time finding just the right structure for our homeschool. So... if you have some ideas, send them my way! Haha!
Extra Attachment: I'm not sure if this is because we are homeschooling or if it's just a phase, but my son has been extra extra attached in the last few weeks. Things like telling me he loves me 70 million times a day, or asking for hugs after every single activity. And it's not that I don't love the hugs and the 70 million "I just love you so much!" because I realllllly do. I just want to make sure we are setting him up for success and, for EVENTUAL independence. And I believe that this independence needs to increase starting now. So, we will be working on this.
These are our main pros and cons so far, but I am sure we will have so much more to add as we continue to move forward in this exciting endeavor! Thanks for reading this far and let us know if you have ideas about structure. Like... how do you start your homeschool day? And is there an actual end to it?
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