I Heart You

Ah, Valentine's Day.  What's not to like about a cheesy holiday centered around writing notes for people we love, showing that we care, and sharing chocolate?

Our Valentine celebrations began in an a-typical way this year.  In our Homeschool Co-op, Aubree is taking an anatomy class.  Her clever teacher chose the class right before Valentine's Day to talk about (what else?) the heart.  But, did they only talk about the heart?  Oh no.  They made a replica of the heart (chambers, valves and all) out of water bottles.  A-mazing!  

Each kid assembled their heart models and took them home to share their experiment with their families. In addition to the heart, each kid had a bottle of red and blue water, to represent the oxygenated and unoxygenated blood.  We poured the "blood" into the appropriate chambers, started the heart "pumping" (thanks, Mark), and watched the bloody show.  Fabulous.  And this, my friends, is why joining a co-op is worthwhile.

After that exciting beginning, we went the more traditional celebration route.  I managed to take pictures of a few of our activities...

Making and decorating sugar cookies (always a fan favorite):

Making Valentine's for friends (heart necklaces for the girls this year - thank you Oriental Trading...):

Bryce's weekly Preschool co-op (a separate activity from our Homeschool Co-op), met on Valentine's Day and the kids had a wonderful party.  I even came away with a Noodle Necklace as a gift (and I looooovvvvveee noodle necklaces [for real]).  Here is a picture of Bryce with the boys in his "class."  

Red Delicious Decor

One week of school down!  

Overall, I think it went really well.  It's been nice to have more structure in our days; I think we're all happier and are definitely accomplishing a lot more.  I've implemented some morning routines and tasks that, though they still need some tweaking, have made a big difference.  

Tuesday morning (our first day), Bryce woke up sooooo excited to "do morning chores!"  He maintained the same enthusiasm through the end of the week.  Who knew making his bed would be such treat?
He is also loving his "school," and that makes me happy too.  As our week progressed, however, I noticed I had a bad habit of trying to start him on Step 3 of a task or concept, without first teaching steps 1 and 2.  I'm used to teaching Aubree and she's 2 1/2 years older than him; I take too much for granted.  This will be a learning process for us all.  

I've also been impressed with how interested Bryce is in what Aubree's doing.  He'll listen to her stories, play with her math manipulatives, and is eager to participate in any hands-on activities.  For example, for history this week we were studying about Archeologists, so we set up our own mini-archeological dig. Aubree assigned Bryce his own quadrant and he diligently helped excavate priceless treasures.  

The interest goes both ways; Aubree thinks lots of Bryce's activities look like fun and wants to make her own letter of the week, do art projects (like our apple print wreaths), color, and use the do-a-dot pen.  Fine with me!  

We try to save the messier activities for Thane's nap-time.  I need to have more age-appropriate activities for Thane to do when he is awake.  That's definitely an area for improvement!  Although, we've started having a simple "morning circle" and Thane loves it.  His favorite part is when it's his turn to "run around the circle."  He's got the "run around" part down, now we just need him to grasp the "circle" part.

School with Aubree also went well.  I was surprised at how quickly we got through all the planned material.  Granted, our math curriculum didn't arrive till Thursday, and we hadn't yet started gymnastics, our Co-op, or the weekly on-site classes, but it makes me feel more confident that we've planned an appropriate and manageable (yet still challenging) amount of work.  

1st Grade Plans

Tomorrow morning is the "official" start of Aubree's first grade year.  Summer has been fun and we enjoyed our country studies, but we got more and more lax as the summer progressed.  The last few weeks I've heard a lot of, "I'm bored...what is there to do?"  I think we're more than ready to be back on a schedule and in school-mode.  

This year will be quite a bit different than Aubree's kindergarten year.  We've got a lot of fun things planned - just like last year - but the biggest difference this year is that Aubree is enrolled with two different school districts through their homeschool outreach programs.

Through district #1 we receive a reasonable yearly financial stipend.  This stipend can be spent on education-related activities, curriculum, and lessons.  For starters, we'll be using the money for weekly gymnastics lessons at a local gym (counts as "PE").  The trade-off is that I have to submit lesson plans and make detailed weekly reports.

Through district #2, Aubree will be able to take a couple of classes.  Once a week we'll go to the school and she'll take an hour long Hands-On Science class and an hour long Writing/Illustration class.  She's extremely excited to take these classes.

In addition to these classes, we'll be participating in our weekly homeschool co-op again this year.  This year promises to be a much better fit academically for Aubree, though, since she'll be in a group of kids ages 6-10 (instead of kids ages 2-6 like last year).  At the Co-op, Aubree will have an hour long Anatomy class, an Active Literature class (art & activities based on specific books), and a half-hour of Game Time (a variety of board games).  Perfect!

At home, I've decided on the following curriculum choices:

Scripture Study: I found a Book of Mormon scripture journal on Discover the Scriptures that I love.  It correlates to the church-published Book of Mormon scripture stories.  I printed the pages out and spiral-bound them and added a bunch of blank lined pages in the back.  The current plan is for Aubree to read the scripture story independently, then we'll read and discuss the actual scriptural text together.  Then she will write a little in her journal (summary of the story, something she learned, personal application, etc.) and (usually) include an illustration.  The blank pages in the back we'll use to discuss "friends and enemies" we read about in the Book of Mormon.  For example, we might choose Nephi and discuss his characteristics and background and choices and what we can learn from him.  Or, we might choose Laman and Lemuel and go through the same exercise.  I imagine we'll complete 2-3 chapters/characters a week, but I'm sure we'll tweak the process as we go.

History: Story of the World, Volume 1: Ancient Civilizations with the accompanying Student Activity workbook.  I'm really looking forward to this part of our studies.  Of course, I'm biased because I love history, but this program seems to present information in interesting and understandable chunks and the activities suggested are fabulous.

Grammar:  A friend suggested the book First Language Lessons and I think it will be a great fit for Aubree.  It includes copywork, narration, picture study and learning the rules of grammar.  I think it will be more fun than it sounds...

Spelling: I'm not too worried about Aubree's spelling at the moment, but we will be doing a weekly spelling list from a website I found, with the accompanying activities.  

Reading: This is another area I'm not worried about, since reading is Aubree's passion.  That being said, I have put together a list of read-alouds for the year and Aubree will be keeping a log of all the chapter books she reads.  Once a week we'll also complete a story-mapping activity together.

Math:  This is the area that's given me the biggest headache.  I've made up my mind and changed it 327 times.  The plan for now is to use Math U See - Alpha.  The problem I'm running into is that, in reviewing first grade math curriculums, I think Aubree's current math level is mid-to-late first grade.  So, I'm most standard first grade curriculums are too easy, but she's got some holes in her knowledge and isn't quite ready for a 2nd grade level.  Math U See gets great reviews and allows us to move at our own pace, so hopefully it will work well.

Those are the subjects I've got planned for now.  As the year progresses, I'm sure we'll make adjustments and, once we get into a nice routine, maybe add in a few electives.  For example, Aubree's asked to learn cursive and embroidery/basic sewing.  We might also start piano lessons.

The Boggle Incentive

"School" officially begins for our family on Sept. 6.  Yes, we will be home schooling again this year (yippee!) and I'll post more about our curriculum plans for Aubree soon.  One of the bigger changes this year will be that Bryce will also be "doing school."  Up until fairly recently, he hadn't shown much interest in any formal-type learning, and we're in no hurry.  

In the last few months, however, he's been telling me, "Mom, you need to teach me that," or "you haven't taught me that yet," or "when I do school I'll learn it all."  He's eager to start school and do some of the things that he sees Aubree doing.  

One of Aubree's favorite past times is playing Boggle on my phone.  One day Bryce asked if he could play.  "Sorry, buddy," I replied, "you have to know how to read to play Boggle."

That night he prayed, "Dear Heavenly Father, please help me learn to read so I can play Boggle on mommy's phone."

And since then, he's been very serious about wanting to learn his letters and learn to read.  He's got a long way to go, but I think we'll have a lot of fun along the way.

Here are my plans for our preschool school year:

We'll be doing a combination of Before Five in a Row, Letter of the Week (from confessions of a homeschooler), and nursery rhyme of the week (memorize, crafts, etc).  I tried to organize the three so there's some letter or theme correlation, but wasn't always successful.  Of course, it will all be pretty low key and probably average only three days a week of "formal" learning.  I have a feeling Thane will also be in the thick of things; he's not one who likes to be left out.

Also, I haven't finalized the second half of the year because I thought it was good enough to get to Christmas (which should be letter K or so).  On holiday weeks, we won't do typical books and letters, we'll just do holiday things.

Here's the format of the list:  Letter - Book - Nursery Rhyme (if you have a correlating nursery rhyme suggestion, please let me know!)

A - Ask Mr. Bear - All Around the Mulberry Bush

B - Blueberries for Sal - Baa, Baa Black Sheep

C - Corduroy - Cock-a-doodle-doo

D - The Snowy Day - Diddle Diddle Dumpling

E - The ABC Bunny - Humpty Dumpty

F - Caps For Sale - Five Little Pigs

G - The Big Green Pocketbook - Georgie Porgie

H - If Jesus Came to my House - Hey Diddle, Diddle

I - I am an Artist - 3 Little Kittens

J - Jenny's Surprise Summer - Jack Be Nimble

K - Katy No-Pocket - Old King Cole

L - Angus Lost - Little Boy Blue

M - Goodnight Moon - Little Miss Muffet

N - My Blue Boat - 

O - Play With Me -  Old Woman who Lived in a Shoe

P - Prayer For a Child - Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater

Q - The Quiet Way Home - Pussy Cat, Pussy Cat

R - The Runaway Bunny - Rub-A-Dub-Dub

S - The Carrot Seed - Simple Simon

T - The Red Carpet - A Tisket, A Tasket

U - We're Going on a Bear Hunt - 

V - The Little Rabbit - 

W - Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear? - Wee Willie Winkie

X - 

Y - Yellow Ball - 

Z - 

Summer School Plans

I really meant to get this post written a couple weeks ago, but apparently blogging was a lower priority than packing and preparing for our big Texas vacation (from which we just returned ... it's next in the blogging line-up).

So, in a nut-shell, we will be doing "summer school."  Why? 

Why not?  Around here, school is generally fun.  When my kids have a routine and we have school things planned, they seem to get along better and never complain about being bored.  Why change what works?  Also, by schooling year round, we can take breaks whenever we want throughout the year without worrying about getting "behind."

School will, however, have a slightly different flavor.  Summer here in Washington is the time to get outside and stay outside; it's breathtakingly beautiful.  I plan to get out as often as possible.  We've got some fun hikes and a trip to Yellowstone planned.  We've begun Nature Journals where Aubree and Bryce can draw pictures and write about what they encounter on their outdoor escapades.  If we still lived in Florida, I might make summer our "serious school" time (since it's miserable outside) and go lighter in the winter months. 

For our indoor school, we're going to "visit" different countries.  During our Five in a Row studies, we "visited" China, Japan, Ireland, Canada, France, and England.  Learning about the different countries was one of our favorite activities, so we're extending the idea into summer.  We'll be heavy on the literature (lots of picture books as well as non-fiction information books), and do some drawing, crafts, and/or cooking.  We'll also make a lapbook for each place we visit. Since it's summer, I plan to take a slower pace, so we will take two or three weeks on each country.

We'll be learning about:

*Australia (almost done)

*Mexico

*USA (with an emphasis on Montana, since we'll be visiting Yellowstone)

*Russia

*Africa (yes, I realize this is a continent.  We'll be focusing on Africa most of August - just in time for my brother, Ian, to leave on his LDS mission to Accra, Ghana).

Aubree and I will be doing a little bit of math, mostly time and money concepts.

And, of course, no Winters Family school would be complete without reading.  Lots and lots of reading.  I've got some fun read-alouds lined up.

Let the summer fun begin continue!

**Did I mention that Washington is BEAUTIFUL right now??  Who wants to come visit?

Kinder-pletion

Aubree "finished" kindergarten last week.  To say she was thrilled would be a tremendous understatement.  "Mom!!" she enthused, "You should make a shirt for me that says 'First Grader!'"

"Uh," I halted, "how about we make a sign?"

"Great!" she announced, "then you can take a picture and put it on your BLOG!" And she scooted off to grab paper and markers.  (The "5" is to indicate that she's 5 years old and is in first grade.  She thinks that's pretty neat.)

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Now is the time for some accountability; a chance to reflect back on the year and consider what worked and what didn't.  

Our primary curriculum was Five in a Row and it was perfect.  Just the right blend of structure and flexibility.  Both Aubree and I enjoyed doing the weekly lapbooks and now have a great record of all the books and topics we studied this past year.  

For math, I signed Aubree up for Dreambox Learning, a game-based internet program.  She usually played 3 times a week for 30 minutes a time.  With all the changes of the last 8 months, it was nice to have something she could do independently.  I think she learned a ton as well.  We quit doing Dreambox at the end of March because she'd finished the kindergarten and 1st grade levels and was getting bored of playing.  

For Handwriting we used the Handwriting without Tears kindergarten workbook.  Very simple and effective.  I've noticed significant improvements in her handwriting over the last year.  When we finished HWT, I found a Starfall journal that a friend gave Aubree.  The journal has fun and engaging writing prompts.  Aubree loved it.  She finished this book as well (anyone know where to find similar books?).

We did a lot of reading.  Aubree's a voracious reader, but we also found many great read-alouds (sometimes me, sometimes Mark, we even roped in Grandpa Winters when he came to visit).  Here were some of our favorites:

*My Father's Dragon (Gannett)

*The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (Baum)- then watched the movie

*Charlie & the Chocolate Factory (Dahl) - then watched the movie

*The Ordinary Princess ( Kaye)

* Because of Winn-Dixie (deCamillo) - then watched the movie

*Mr. Popper's Penguins (Atwater)

*James and the Giant Peach (Dahl) 

*Tale of Desperaux (deCamillo) 

*Ramona and Beezus - then watched the movie. (This read-aloud was pure torture for Aubree.  She couldn't stand to wait for me to read.  She begged and begged, "please, please can I read it on my own?" We finally came to an agreement: If she would be patient and wait for me to read it to her, she could read the rest of the series on her own.  She loved the Ramona books.)

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So, those are the things that worked well.  What didn't pan out?  

Weekly cooking classes? - never even got started.
Drawing lessons? - another good idea that never made it past the idea stage. 

Starting each morning with circle time/devotional? - I still think it's a great idea, we just haven't gotten that organized yet.  

Involving Bryce? - Not as much as I would have liked.  Usually Aubree and I did school in the afternoons when both boys were napping.  Bryce is three now...it's time to include him more.  

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This post is getting long (and tomorrow is Thane's 1st birthday [!!!!!!!!] and I still have things I need to do to get ready), so I'll hold off writing about our plans for the summer and beyond until later this weekend.
In summary, though, it's been a great year.  I think homeschooling is wonderful.

Animal Farm

Most Friday afternoons the kids and I go to a local homeschool co-op (called "Scoop").  There are probably about 20-25 kids who attend, but they're split between the big kids and the little kids.  Aubree and Bryce are both in the little kid (3-6 year olds) group.  Scoop is a perfect fit for Bryce and Aubree also has fun.  

The moms have responsibility for different portions of the program, including: opening circle, story time, music, plan & play, centers, art, and science.  I'm in charge of Plan & Play (which is based on research that suggests that sustained role playing has significant long-term cognitive and academic benefits) and Art (which, since I lack artistic ability, is more "crafts").  

Last week our Scoop theme was "Farms."  For Plan & Play time I brought animal noses out of egg cartons, let the kids choose which animal they wanted to "be," and sat back thoroughly entertained as the kids got into character.  Bryce started out as a little pig, but spent most of his time with a cow nose.  He found himself a cozy pen and practiced rolling around in the mud. 

Aubree tried on a couple noses, but ultimately decided she'd rather be the farmer.  Soon, she and another mom got the idea to open a Farmer's Market where they sold milk, cheese, and eggs.  When the animals inevitably became customers, she also sold animal food. 

 Thane crawled around alternately fascinated and terrified by the protuberances.  He wanted nothing to do with wearing one himself.  

 The other kids were equally hilarious.  One boy, Ryan, chose to wear the sheep nose.  Only he decided it was a mouse nose and he snuck around the room squeaking and trying to steal cheese.

 Overall, it was a lot of fun.

Museum of Flight

Despite my lack of updates, Aubree and I are still going strong with home schooling.  When we got back from Tahoe we really got in a good groove and have been able to be very consistent since them.  In fact, we're almost done with her Kindergarten year!  We have less than 3 weeks left till we finish up what we had planned.  I'll write a wrap-up post then with our thoughts on how it went (what worked and what didn't), our plans for the summer (and why we'll "school" year round), and our tentative plans for the fall.

In the meantime, here's a post I meant to write a month ago!

One week we "rowed" (get it? Five in a "Row"...) the book The Glorious Flight, which was about Louis Bleriot - the first person to fly solo over the English Channel.  I mentioned our plans to a friend and she commented, "Oh! So, are you going to visit the Museum of Flight?"  With that smack upside the head, (why wouldn't we???) we headed out one windy and rainy morning for the perfect culminating field trip after a week learning about the history of airplanes.  I was surprised how much more interesting I found the museum with a little background information.

Mark works literally across the street from the Museum, so he took a long lunch and walked over to meet us there.  Don't they look like they're on a real flight in this picture?

Proof that Thane came too (he's so cute!):

The same friend who gave me the idea of going to the museum graciously agreed to come along to be a tour guide and provide playmates for my kids.  This is Aubree and her new friend, Lauren, flying the helicopter.

Mark trying his hand at para-sailing:

Bryce sitting in the cock-pit of of fighter jet.  He looks like he's enjoying himself, don't you think?

Here's Aubree showing the lapbook she made for our Glorious Flight week:

Lapbooks are so fun!

Ghoul School

Today is Aubree's last day at preschool.  It also happens to be "Make-Believe Day."  Here's a sneak peak of an upcoming Halloween post (can you find Aubree and her awesome costume?):

Apart from the above picture, this post has nothing to do with Halloween (despite the misleading title- sometimes I just can't resist a good rhyme).  Instead, it's a quick picture update of our home-school adventures.  

We love Five in a Row!  To help keep track of the things we're learning and doing, we're using lapbooks.  Lapbooks are just a fun way to organize, display, and review the things we've learned.  We make a different lapbook for each book we read.

Our first week we read The Story About Ping, about a duck on the Yangtze River.  That was before we started lapbooking.  We did however, have fun examining what things sink vs. float.  This was also the book that inspired Aubree's "China Hunt."

Our second book was Lentil, a story about a harmonica-playing boy growing up in a small town in Ohio.  One day Aubree made a model of Lentil's town using her blocks (the "peek-a-blocks" on top of each "building" gave hints as to what each building represented.  For example, the bell was on top of the Methodist Church, the apple on top of the school, the book was on top of the library, etc). 

 Our third book was Madeline.  Learning about France was a lot of fun.  We did some impressionist paintings and learned about symmetry.  Aubree's favorite part of this was learning how to cut out symmetrical hearts by folding the paper in half.  Our home was filled with hearts!

Our fourth book was The Rag Coat, about a poor girl living in coal country.  Since I knew next to nothing about coal and coal production, it was a fascinating week.  We watched some great online videos of how coal is mined and I felt claustrophobic just watching the miners descend deep underground!  Aubree was more interested in the quilts.

 

Right now we're reading Who Owns the Sun?, which deals with issues of slavery.  Admittedly, as the move has gotten closer and things have gotten busier, we haven't been as consistent about doing home school.  I decided to stretch out each book to two weeks instead of one and that has helped a lot.  Once we get settled in Washington, however, (and get well-acquainted with the library) we'll get back to the original one-book-per-week plan.  Love it!

School: Part Final

I've gone back and forth, and forth and back about what "curriculum" to use with Aubree this year.  It's been a fun process.  There are a million different curriculum options, philosophies, and suggestions, which can be a bit overwhelming, but I enjoy the planning aspect.  I've finally gotten all my materials and am gearing up to semi-officially "starting" home-school next week.  We've begun a few things already and won't get as structured as I'd like until we move and Aubree's no longer attending preschool, but next week we will start what will serve as our foundation.

Our core curriculum will come from the Five in a Row book by Jane Lambert.  It's literature-based and basically involves reading the same picture book once a day for five days and doing different activities each day in association with the book (geography, science, math, art, & social studies).  This program came highly recommended, offers a lot of flexibility, promises to be extremely enjoyable, and will allow us to include Bryce as much as possible.  I'm sure I'll supplement each week a lot with other library books on the same topics and most likely I'll end up learning more than anyone (it never ceases to amaze me how little I really know!).

For math, I've decided to use an Internet-based program called DreamBox.  It's an individualized, game-based program.  Aubree's been "playing" for about a month and I'm amazed at how much she's learned!  As a parent I get frequent emails about her progress and can easily track what she's accomplished and what she's working on.  As for Aubree, she thinks it's a ton of fun and enjoys earning the different rewards and accomplishing the varying tasks.  It does require a subscription, but if anyone is interested in trying it out, let me know because anyone I refer can get a free month and we'd get a free month too (anyone can get a free 2 week trial from the website).

One area I think we need to focus on is Handwriting.  Aubree's learned some bad habits in her writing that I think will be easier to correct sooner rather than later.  We've started using Handwriting Without Tears.  We just started last week, but are flying through the workbook.  Each letter only takes us a few minutes and Aubree is never content to just work on one letter; I have to force her to stop at two or three!  Even so, I've already noticed a big improvement in her writing.  I think it helped just to think about/be aware of how letters should be formed and how they relate to the lines on the paper.

Another area in which we can definitely use improvement, and that I'm really excited about, is in our gospel study.  Once Aubree's done with preschool (and on Tuesdays and Thursdays until that point), I'm planning on starting our school day with a devotional time.  This will hopefully include elements such as: prayer, songs, scripture stories, scripture memorization (one a week), stories from the 'Friend,' magazine, stories from the Book of Virtues, etc.

I also want to do a once-a-week cooking lesson.  

Of course, we'll supplement all of this with lots and lots of reading.  I've compiled a fairly long list of read-aloud chapter books and recommended picture books that we'll systematically put on hold at the library (Oh! How I love our librarians!).  If anyone has any favorite read-aloud or picture books, please - let me know!

I really hope that wherever we move has some kind of a home-school co-op, where other classes are offered to further broaden our options.  I'm sure over time I will modify these plans, as we learn for ourselves what works and what doesn't.  Eventually I hope to come up with a better plan of how to either involve Bryce in what Aubree's doing, or set up something special just for him.  Wish us luck!

School Part 2: Home School

My sisters tell me I'm weird and getting weirder. I suppose they're right, but it's a gradual process and I'm okay with it. I'm grateful to have my own blog where I can try to explain my "path to weirdness."
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Six years ago, when I was still working full time in the public schools, I had strong opinions about home schooling. The home schooled kids I came across in my role as a school psychologist were anything but exemplary. Usually they were trying to get back into the public school setting and it was clear they were years behind their classmates academically and socially. Their parents frequently admitted to having done little, if any, structured teaching/learning. Shameful. Pair those experiences with the limited exposure I had growing up to kids who had been home-schooled and were rather socially awkward, and I felt the evidence was clear that home schooling was a recipe for academic failure and social maladjustment.
When Aubree was born, Mark and I spent a lot of time talking about our views on education. We agreed that education was extremely important and envisioned that our kids would take school "seriously." Missing school, except in instances of illness, was not an option. I'll admit to being somewhat judgmental of families I saw who pulled their kids out of school for "frivolous" activities. "Don't they realize how important school is?" I wondered.
Slowly, ever so slowly, my views on home schooling began to soften. I met a few families who took home schooling seriously and their kids were not only not weird, but intelligent, articulate, thoughtful, hard-working, and wonderful! "Hmmm," I pondered, "maybe there are some exceptions."
About a year ago, a lady in my ward who home schools her daughters came up to me and asked if I would like some of her old curriculum. "Ummmm..." I stammered, not quite sure why she was asking me. She jumped in, "I was getting ready to sell it and kept getting a feeling that I should give it to you. I tried to ignore the feeling, but it just kept coming back stronger, so I figured I'd at least ask." "Oh no!" I answered, "Don't say that! I don't want to home school!"
Occasionally, while perusing the Internet looking for fun and educational activities for my kiddos, I'd come across an article or a blog post talking about home school. Reading one would peak my curiosity and soon I was seeking out more blogs, articles, and books. The more I researched and read about education and schools, the more disenchanted I became with the educational system. I realized my attitude had shifted and I was already planning how many days of school my kids could miss and not get in trouble with the administration. I'd decided family time trumped school time. I even found myself wondering if "education" and "school" were necessarily synonymous, and had serious reservations about the wisdom of a "standardized curriculum."
One of my good friends has two kids that are school-aged. I had a front-row seat last year as she and her kids struggled with the public school system that would not or could not meet her daughter's needs. Ultimately my friend chose to pull her daughter out of school and home-school the remainder of the year, which worked out well for them. Her daughter is a lot like Aubree, which forced me to really face the question of whether a public school is the best option for her and her brothers.
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Since the kindergarten cut-off date here in Florida is non-negotiable, I felt like home schooling is really my only good choice this year. In a twisted way, I'm almost grateful there are no exceptions, because I've been forced to research and prepare to home school and in this process I'm discovering that it might not just be manageable or acceptable, but perhaps even preferable. There are a TON of fabulous resources and curriculums and supports available.
As we gear up to start home-schooling, I'm really looking forward to having more structure in our lives; I want to be more intentional in how our time is spent. In the past few months, for the first time, Aubree's been complaining about being "bored." (Admittedly, the past year I haven't been very proactive in planning crafts or activities at home.) "Mom," she begs, "give me some options!" With the curriculum choices I've made, we'll have lots of options! Most are really fun and engaging and even Bryce will be able to participate in some of the more hands-on activities.
I want my kids to maintain their love of learning, and I also want them to develop problem-solving skills, to be compassionate, to have opportunities to follow their passions. I like having them around and I feel uneasy turning the majority of their days over to strangers. I want to be able to incorporate the Gospel into all their studies, not do damage control in the few moments I might have with them after school.
On a more selfish note, Aubree's only been in "school" less than two weeks (which she continues to enjoy), and I'm already less than fond of the drop-off and pick-up routine. I don't like having to conform to other people's schedules and I really hate having to wake up sleeping babies. Plus, in the off-chance that we are able to move closer to family, I want to be able to go visit!
So, maybe this home school thing will work for our family. Or, maybe it won't and Aubree will be heading off to public schools this time next year. It's a grand experiment and I'm excited to get started!

Aubree & School: Part 1

Monday was Aubree first day of "school."
I've spent the last year obsessing over what course of action to follow for her schooling this year. I think she should be starting kindergarten, but Florida's cut-off date is September 1st and it's a hard cut-off, no exceptions. I find that aggravating (to put it mildly).
I seriously considered putting Aubree in a private Montessori school. They were willing to take her even though she's four and I was extremely impressed with the teacher. It was a K-2 classroom with lots of flexibility and adjustments for each child as an individual. My biggest concern about the school was that it was 7 hours a day. That means 35 hours a week. That's almost as long as Mark is gone at work and he's an adult! I'm not willing to give up that much time with my child. I asked the teacher if she might consider half-day enrollment. She tried to ease my fears saying, "I know it sounds like a long time, and most kids have a little bit of a hard time transitioning to such a long day at first, but after a week or two they're just fine." Truth be told, I'm not worried that Aubree wouldn't handle it well. I think she'd even enjoy it. I suppose I'm jealous of my time with her and I think 35+ hours is over-kill.
Florida also offers what they call VPK or Voluntary Pre-Kindergarten. This is a free-to-parents program where kids can attend a preschool for 15 hours a week during the year before they start kindergarten. What I like about the Program is that it's totally a parent's choice where their child goes, so there are a lot of options, both public and private. I also like that it's only 15 hours a week. What I don't like is that it's a preschool and I think society's views of preschools are becoming more and more alarming (but that's a subject for another rant). I also don't think, from an academic perspective, that Aubree will get a whole lot from a preschool setting. I'm afraid that sounds arrogant, but the preschools around here have a fairly standardized set of guidelines and pre-reading readiness figures heavily into their curriculum (think letter of the week).
The final option I've heavily researched is home school. My thoughts about home schooling have changed dramatically over the last few years. But again, that's a subject of another (probably long) post.
Ultimately, with the uncertainty of how long we'll be here in Florida (Mark is actively looking for a new job and once we accept an offer we'll be moving...somewhere...sometime), I decided to go ahead and enroll Aubree in a private VPK. She goes to school Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays for five hours at a time. As of today, she's attended twice and has had a lot of fun. I think her teacher is great and there is a lot of time for playing, which is important. For the few months that we're anticipating still being here, I think it will be a good fit and still be new enough to be interesting for her. Bryce doesn't like having Aubree gone. I can't tell you how many times I've heard him say, "Mom, I want to go get Aubree."

Aubree with her VPK teachers

I've also decided to supplement her VPK with home school and when we move, we'll home school "full time." One thing I feel strongly about is that, one way or another, Aubree will be in 1st grade next year (I've put a lot of time and thought and research into coming to this decision and really feel it's in her best interest). I'm excited about the upcoming year and will post more about our home schooling plans soon.

P.S. Yes, I know - I over-analyze everything and this has been a long-standing obsession. When I was PREGNANT with Aubree, and Mark was looking for his first post-college job, I remember telling him, "let's move to North Carolina! They're kindergarten cut-off date is October 16!" Nuts, eh?