Announcing to the World...

That we are planning to homeschool our son.

This may not seem to be that big of a deal, but it is.

And I've been so worried about other people knowing because I don't want them to treat our son differently.  I think homeschooling has become more mainstream than when we were growing up, but it is still not common.  We have been so thrilled to have found such a large, local, community of support!

E will not legally have to be in education until he turns 6 years (entering 1st grade) which will be 2015-2016 school year.  But, here in Florida, most kids head to preschool for free (aka VPK) for K4.  We had decided to send E to our local Christian school for the VPK portion & then decide from there about further education.

Then we decided to homeschool him for this year.  I am still nervous about him learning to read & all jazz, but I am so excited, too!  We are looking forward to taking trips as often as possible to provide as much hands-on learning as possible, we are thrilled to have both a flexible AND structured environment for him to learn, we are happy to be able to focus on his strengths & his weaknesses, & so many other aspects.

{I feel as though I need to add some disclaimers here... We made a completely informed, individual, decision.  We have thoroughly researched the benefits of homeschooling our child & are more than happy to share those resources with anyone genuinely interested in learning more about it.  We aren't saying this will work forever, but for this year... it's the plan!  There is no person, governmental entity, or program/school that will ever be as invested or motivated for E to learn all that he has the potential to learn than his father & I.  Period.  We are very honored to have family & friend support for this journey.  Also, I plan to share our homeschooling journey here so that others may be encouraged to make- or not make- the decision to educate their child at home; this will never be a condemnation for those that decide to educate their child in a school setting & comments of the such will be deleted.}

I thought I could share what we are currently planning for this first semester/year; I'm sure it will evolve as we move along!

We are using Classical Conversations as a portion of our experience.  If you're not familiar with "CC", you should check it out!  CC uses the classical model of education.  We will meet every Monday morning for 3 hours of guided education by a private tutor.  During this meeting, E will review his memory work (Biblical passages, science, Latin, math, history, art, among others), have a science experiment + art project, & have opportunities to make "presentations" (small speeches) EACH week.  He will have a small class of other children his age & I will be with him the whole time.  After the session is over, many families stay & enjoy the playground along with a picnic lunch.  They also schedule related field trips every month for us to take!

I am looking forward to utilizing Classical Conversations not only for the educational pathway it provides, but for the social support for E & myself.  Even though we feel this is the right decision for our son, it doesn't make it easy to feel isolated & different.  CC will provide friends for E that are also homeschooled & will provide mama friends for me, too.  They have already been so helpful to guide us into curriculum & resources & our school year hasn't even started!!

In addition to the CC portion of our home education, we will be working lots of phonics + reading + writing.  E already knows all of the sounds of the alphabet & can write nearly every letter.  We are beginning BOB books to help him meld all those sounds into letters forming words.  Pretty exciting!  We have some Preschool Prep Series DVD + workbook sets for sight words.  We are also probably going to be using Phonics Pathways, too.

We will be doing lots of letter recognition worksheets, coloring, writing, drawing, art, & more.  We are already planning a trip to the Kennedy Space Center (two of the science subjects focused this year at CC are physics & astronomy... PERFECT for the Kennedy Space Center!) in the next few months.  We are planning to start/plant/harvest a garden.  We will be adding chickens to our property which E will help care for.

One aspect I am very excited about is E's woodworking classes.  My MIL is a master crafts(wo)man & has agreed to teach our little one once a week!  He already has his own safety glasses, screwdrivers, hammers, hand-powered-drill, saw, & tape measurer!  They will be working on building various projects at her discretion.  She said initially they will be working on him sanding the wood pieces down, then sawing & nailing/screwing together.  How awesome to be learning these skills at 4 years old!?  And, he gets to spend time with his grandmother at the same time!!

For math, we will be concentrating on counting, multiplication/skip counting, clock/time recognition, money counting/recognition, & anything else we find!  We will cook to practice math & reading.  We will garden to learn math, we will use any opportunity we can to learn math & reading.

We will read a lot together.  Most of this year will probably consist of me reading to E, but I'm sure the transition will slowly occur to him reading much of the books.  We will get a membership to the much larger county library in the town near us so that we can access as many DVDs, books, & classes as possible.

We have a membership to a local museum that has several animals, an old homestead with buildings, a train caboose, a playground, & weekly homeschool lessons.  We hope to attend as many of these classes for homeschoolers as possible (one or two hours per lesson).  This a very hands-on museum & has been wonderful to visit.  E already has learned the difference between cold-blooded & warm-blooded animals (among other lessons) because of walking around & talking about the animals.

I'm sure I'm forgetting lots, but we have lots of plans.  I am a little overwhelmed at some of the tasks I need to finish before starting our CC in September, but I have a Mentor Mom that has been helping me & I think once we are doing it... it'll be easier & flow better.  I'm trying to take it day by day & have been working on our homeschool cubbies.  I'll plan out lessons & leave room for spontaneity & flexibility.  There is also a weekly local homeschool group that meets at a playground each week & has a very active Facebook group.  Lots of people to interact with & ask questions to... I hope we can jump right into that community meeting, too!

I plan to be sharing photos & details about our journey.  And his little uniform?!  Adorable...  ;)

Much love to you all!  Have a wonderful Tuesday!!