School at Home

We started school in August and I found out really quickly that this year was not going to be like her kindergarten year.  Not all days have been rainbows and butterflies.  Some days are just hard, hard on both of us.  I had to make a schedule because I found that she was asking me..."what's next?" all day long.  Most days we don't follow it exactly, she has some classes at school and gymnastics once a week but it helps a lot with the flow of our day.  She knows what to expect and it helps to minimize questions.  

We also had to make a progress tracker.  She starts at 5 every morning and every time we finish a subject or an assignment she moves up a number.  Sometimes she gets to 10 before we finish what we have to do for the day and other times she doesn't.  If she struggles with behavior or refuses to let me teach her then she moves down.  If she makes it to ten for 5 days then she gets a 1 dollar prize.  The target dollar section has been amazing for this.  So far she has earned Halloween window stickers, a Halloween Sticker book, a pair of socks, and glow in the dark fingernail polish.  Most days she is really motivated to get her sticker for the day but we have had a couple days where she hasn't made it.  

Overall I'm really happy that we decided to home school this year.  It's been so rewarding for me to see her progress and to learn right a long side of her.  We've been learning about early history and there's so much that I have forgotten that I have loved relearning.  I've loved exploring new literature, poetry, and learning about new bugs and reptiles.  

I am so happy that we were able to go to Seattle and that we are able to go to Utah a couple more times before the end of the year.  The flexibility of  home school has been well worth it.  

She's learning so much more and she's loved making new friends along the way.

One of my favorite things has been watching her write.  She's supposed to write a thoughtful thank you note 1 to 2 times a week.  It's been so fun to watch her think of ways to thank other people and to see her get excited about doing it.  I love that she's learning gratitude and her writing is getting better everyday.  

 I love being able to spend time teaching her one on one....It's just something I love to do.  I feel really blessed to be able to do it at this stage in my life.  

Keep growing little one.