Sunday, July 10, 2016

We're on our way

I meant to start recording our homeschool shenanigans way back in May when I created this blog, but good intentions and all that. We did start, though. For the foreseeable future, we'll be exploring and discovering with the Five in a Row curriculum, which specifically aims to foster a love of books and an even greater love of learning.

I've looked at several other curriculum sites this summer and even purchased the Confessions of a Homeschooler curriculum for K4 (an extremely thorough and affordable curriculum! just not the one for us because I think I need to take a more sneaky approach and tiptoe around Nicholas's general aversion to worksheets and "seat work"). I spent a few weeks drooling over the Timberdoodle pre-k boxed curriculum (I still might pick up their pre-k science kit) and checked out some free stuff but from the moment I read about Five in a Row, my gut yelled, "this is it!" - and yes, this is it!

Five in a Row is founded in the philosophy that an early love of  books and learning will lead to lifelong learning. That's what I want for Nicholas. Even before he was born, I wanted him to know the richness of worlds and people that could be found in literature (and I don't just mean *literature* literature). I've filled his bedroom with books, and now we're going to continue as we began.

I regret that I created this blog and then abandoned it until now because we went ahead and started our Quest for Knowledge back in May with The Carrot Seed by Ruth Krauss and we've already come a long way through Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina, Angus Lost by Marjorie Flack, The ABC Bunny by Wanda Gag, and, just wrapping up this weekend, Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel by Virginia Lee Burton.

We've enjoyed some books more than others (I think Angus Lost was a favorite - when I found a Scottie dog Beanie Baby at a flea market, Nicholas squeed with joy) but we've learned something from every one.

Best of all: Nicholas now tells everybody he meets that he's homeschooled, and "my mommy is the best teacher" (without any prompting at all)!

I have plenty of fears. I'm worried I won't give him enough or I'll push him too hard or I'll rob him of social experiences found in a classroom...but I hope in time my fears will shrink in the shadow of his success (don't look at me like that; I'm a writer, exaggerated language is what I do).

But I'm learning that right over there beside my fears are opportunities. We've found a co-op that meets once a week and I'm tentatively hopeful those families will become our tribe. I'm finding that the more I learn with Nicholas every day, the closer we become and the more confident he becomes. I never thought of him as a little boy who has a shell, but suddenly a switch has been flipped and he wants to draw and color and listen to music (deafening volumes, hah!).

With the world in the state it is right now, I'm not sure what kind of future we face as humans, but whatever comes, I want his present to be warm, memorable and joyful.

So, here we go! (Or here we continue!)

Watch for some pictures and thoughts on our Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel "row" soon! I've started planning our next adventure but I want to put Mike Mulligan down on e-paper while it's still fresh in my mind.


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